Achluophobia
by vintage-misery49
Summary: Lucy is a forensic anthropologist struggling to make her own name in her feild, Natsu is an FBI agent who has his own defination of justice and doesn't mind breaking the rules to achieve it. But when the two are paired up to solve the numerous murders that have been happening in Magnolia will they be able to work togther to find the culprit? Or will they be consumed by the darkness
1. Pyrophobia (Fear of Fire)

The click of heels echoed through the desolate hallway. The lights were still dimmed, as the rest of the building hadn't even been opened yet. The only people who could be found there this early in the morning was the curator of the museum or the few scientists that came in early to begin their research or who had a stayed a little too late trying to find some kind of breakthrough in their research. Lucy Heartfilia was one of those people.

They always said the early bird got the worm and Lucy wholeheartedly believe in this, which would explain her much more earlier clock in times than those of her colleagues. But she believed her job wasn't one that could be the regular nine to five job. She was a forensic anthropologist, while her normal day of work was more her looking at mummified and long dead humans, every once in a while they would get a dead body from the FBI to examine for them, but they haven't had the opportunity for a long time now. Lucy had decided to take the job offer in this section for that reason alone. While she did enjoy looking at centuries old bodies as most people in her profession do, she had always been drawn to the thrill of murder mysteries.

She had only been working in the field for two years, not enough to get her enough recognition to actually help in anything other than examining bodies for the museum and their exhibits. Not that she was unhappy with her job; it just lacked the thrill she had hoped for. But if she could get her name out enough she may be able to make herself a name in the field, and when that happened then all kinds of job opportunities would come in.

Sighing she took out her id card as she approached the doors to the museum's lab and swiped her card. She heard a small ding and the doors opened with a swish. Stepping through the doors she headed to her small locker among the many by the doors and took out her starch white lab coat. Sliding it on, she clipped her id to the pocket before turning around and stepping into the lab.

While it was still only six in the morning, the lab was bustling as per usual. She was a little overwhelmed but it was a feeling she had grown used to. Numerous odd experiments were going on around her, some with botany, some to do with global warming and a few odd ones that she never had any idea with what they had to do with.

"Good morning Lucy" came a cheerful voice from behind Lucy.

"Levy" Lucy said turning around to see her smaller and cheerful senior "Good morning."

"I hope you're ready for today" Levy said with a smile as she held up a file "We actually have some work from the police, their forensics haven't been able to crack the mystery of this body so they sent it to us since they can't just keeping looking over one body.

"Of course" Lucy said, an excited smile spreading across her face. This is exactly the kind of work she loved the most.

"Calm down there Lucy, I know you love looking at….more recent dead bodies, but even people like us might find that a little strange" Levy said with a small shake of her head as the two of them walked over to the section of the lab that was dedicated to anthropology and forensics.

"Oooo, the body's already here" Lucy said, doing her best not to act like she just like a five year old on Christmas.

"What did you think we'd have to bring the body here ourselves?" Levy asked, amusement in her voice. Pulling out the box of gloves, Levy held them out to Lucy before taking a pair out for herself. Lucy pulled on the gloves as the unusual smell of latex perpetrated its way into her nose; it was the smell she had learned to associate with her work.

"Okay so on the agenda for today" Levy said as she scanned over the papers in the file "We need to determine if this was an accident or a murder" she said as she gestured to the body laid out on the metal table.

"So, where should we start?" Lucy asked as the two looked down at the body. The front half of her body looked almost completely untouched except for the bruise on the victim's forehead.

"Well the police file said that they cause of death was a blunt force trauma on the right side of the back of the head" Levy said as she turned the victim's head to reveal a bloody section of hair and a shaved patch of hair that revealed a large indent in the back of the victim's head.

"They didn't strip the bones?" Lucy asked as she looked at the back of the victim's head, squinting to see if she could make anything out through the bruise that was still on the skin.

"Well the family asked them not to, they would prefer to have an open casket apparently" Levy said as she shook her head "But we can try and take an x-ray to see if we can find something on the bones."

"It would be better if we could hold the bones in our hands" Lucy muttered as she picked up the file to read over it herself.

"Well we don't know for sure if it was a murder, the family just wants to make sure since it's seem kind of fishy since she wasn't found by anything that could have caused the blow" Levy said as she went over to see if anyone was using the x-ray.

According to the file the victim was named Julie Meir, age 23 who lived with her parents in a two story house. They were various notes beside this with some thinking perhaps she had fallen down the stairs. But when she read farther down she found that she had been found in the living room with a pool of blood under her head and no blood anywhere else. She was found nowhere near the stairs and no objects were found by her and nothing seemed precariously balanced around her. Her parents had been at work during the time of the murder.

Her parents claimed she worked at a nearby theatre and didn't have anyone in her life romantically. They said she didn't have many friends but those she did have were close with her and said she didn't have mean bone in her body. So it doesn't seem that she had been murdered but it doesn't seem that it could have been accident. Lucy could see why this was stumping the police.

"The x-ray machine is free right now" Levy said as Lucy was placing the file back down.

"Okay then, how do we move this then?" Lucy said as she gestured to the examining table.

"There's a reason wheels were put on it" Levy said with a small chuckle before pointing down to the bottom of the table.

"Ah" Lucy said as Levy grabbed on end of it.

"Come on you get the other end, we'll wheel it there ourselves" Levy said before throwing the file off the exam table and onto the one next to it.

"Time to roll out" Lucy said with a laugh as the two rolled the exam table through the lab. They probably looked absolute ridiculous rolling a dead body down a hallway while laughing the entire way. That might be one of the reasons the other scientists and researchers were a little scared of them. Rolling into the room with all of the x-ray equipment in it, the two situate the table close enough to the x-ray before Levy moves it so it's overtop the head of the victim.

"Turn the head to the side with the blow" Levy said as she moves it around so it's perfectly positioned over top the head. Lucy turns the head to reveal the injury and the two go and stand behind the 'protection glass' as they had nicknamed to before pressing the button to take the x-ray. The hum of the machine filled the room as Levy took a few x-rays before giving Lucy a thumbs up to signal they were done.

Lucy walked over and moved the x-ray machine back to its original place as Levy went over to get the x-rays. The room was too dark for Lucy to try to get another look at the injury while she was waiting for Levy to bring over the x-rays but that didn't mean she couldn't try. But just like the first time she saw it she didn't find anything new or out of the ordinary.

"I got the x-rays" Levy said as she waved them in front of Lucy's face "So stop staring a hole into the victims head and look at the x-rays for a second. Lucy looked over at the x-rays and was disappointed to see that it looked they weren't going to be too much of a help. But Levy had already pulled the brakes on stripping the bones so they were in a bit of a tight spot at the moment.

"It looks like it was made by something with an edge" Lucy said as she picked the x-ray from off the top and placed it in front of the light for a better look.

"Yeah, your right" Levy said as she squinted her eyes at it to get a better look "Probably not too sharp of an edge though, something that was a bit more of a rounded edge."

"So what could that cover?" Lucy asked as she wracked her brain for ideas.

"A book, but unless it was a heavy one it wouldn't kill you, maybe some kind of decorative item, like a wooden box or a tray of some sort or maybe-" Levy said prattling off a list of things it might be before Lucy interrupted her.

"Or stairs?" Lucy asked, glancing away from the x-ray and over to Levy to see her reaction.

"That would definitely be a possibility" Levy said hesitantly "But still all evidence points to her being nowhere near the stairs."

"Well maybe we have someone who is determined for this death to be written off as an accident" Lucy said as she picked up another x-ray and put it in the light.

"I don't, I mean would someone really go through all of the trouble to push her down the stair. Pick her up and not just drag her body to the living room to make sure no blood trail was made and then to clean up any blood that would have been on the area where she originally landed? I don't know Lucy, it's kind of a longshot" Levy said as she turned to the other x-ray.

"They would have only needed to make sure that her head wasn't dragged so the killer would have only needed to drag her by her upper body, and she was killed while her family was at work so the killer would have had the time to clean up the other blood before fleeing the scene" Lucy said as numerous different scenarios zoomed through her head "It makes a lot more sense than it being an accident."

"I suppose" Levy said "But there wasn't enough evidence on her body to suggest her being pushed down the stairs."

Glancing back over at the body Lucy said "Let's look over the body for ourselves."

"Fine, let's roll her back to the lab" Levy said as she shook her head slightly, Lucy was a dear friend but she seemed to want to do more police work then forensics.

"No let's just look at her back, we can do that right here" Lucy said as she pulled the sheet back before turning the victim over to reveal her back slightly.

"Lucy I know you like to make everything we get from the police a murder mystery but-"Levy began before Lucy quickly cut her off.

"I don't remember this being recorded in the file, do you Levy?" Lucy asked as she pointed to large line shaped bruises on the victims back.

"Oh my gosh" Levy mumbled "No I don't remember that being recorded" Levy said, her voice a little louder than normal.

"I don't know how they could have missed it" Lucy said as she looked over the bruises "Do you think they might have been caused by falling or being pushed down stairs?"

"Yes" Levy said "Is suppose if she slid down the stairs on her back."

"Well I think we have some reasonable doubt now that this might not have been an accident" Lucy said as she turned her back onto her back.

"I'll go tell Porlyusica and then I'll call the person who did the first autopsy" Levy said as she turned and ran out of the room.

Lucy turned back to look at the x-rays but could barely keep her focus. Her heart was pounding loud in her head and adrenaline of being on an actual murder case got her blood pumping. She felt like her body was tingling, this might help get her name out there as one of the forensic scientist that helped solve a local murder case when everyone thought it was just an accident. This could be her big break if it ended just right.

"Hello Dr. Heartfilia" came a voice from behind her. Turning her head around she saw it was her boss Porlyusica.

"Hello Dr. Porlyusica" Lucy said with a small wave "How are you doing? Did Levy tell you what we found?"

"Yes she did" Porlyusica said with a small nod as the air around her stayed stiff "She also told me that you where the one to determine this possibility."

"She did?" Lucy asked; her voice a little bit too hopeful which caused Porlyusica's mouth to move into a small frown.

"Yes, why wouldn't she? Don't underestimate your abilities, which is exactly why we're having this little chat today" she said as she walked over closer to Lucy.

"Oh really?" Lucy asked as she began to fret over what she might have done wrong in the past few months but came up with nothing.

"Yes, it's about a learning opportunity" Porlyusica said.

"A learning opportunity?" Lucy squeaked, becoming more nervous by the second.

"Yes, just this morning a close friend of mine in the FBI asked me for a favor. He wanted me to offer one of his officers the use of one of my forensic scientist on a case that will be beginning today" Porlyusica explained "And I picked you."

"Oh well thank you but-"Lucy said beginning to feel flattered, working with the FBI would obviously be a big deal and a major job opportunity but she couldn't just leave Levy alone on this case.

"Come, let's finish this talk in my office" Porlyusica said, waving at Lucy to follow her. Lucy followed behind her hesitantly but it's not like she couldn't turn down the offer after she heard it. But maybe it'll end up being some big case that has stumped the FBI and it's up to her to help them find clues by looking at the bodies of the victims.

They reached the door to Porlyusica's office which one of the few offices that went along with the labs, being the head in the forensics' unit had some perks apparently. Lucy followed her inside the office and then stood stiffly by the doorframe as Porlyusica sat down in her desk chair. Raising her brow at Lucy once again she waved her hand at the chair that sat in front of her desk.

"Oh um yes" Lucy said jumbling her words together as she quickly sat down in the chair as she scanned around the office taking everything in, the last time she had been in her bosses office was when she had gotten a little bit too enthusiastic about a new body and had caused some...problems. But this time she didn't have to worry about a possible pink slip.

"Now then Heartfilia" Porlyusica said, crossing her legs as she watched Lucy's eyes dart around like a frightened rabbit "Let's continue our conversation."

Lucy stopped looking around the room and focused her eyes on Porlyusica "Um yeah, I'm interested to hear what it is about."

"Im sure you are" Porlyusica said with a curt nod before picking up a manila folder that was sitting on her desk "This is the folder my friend gave me, it doesn't contain much at the moment since they haven't gone out to receive the body yet since they only got the call an half an hour ago. So after I finish quickly telling you what's going on were going to meet you partner for the case, and before you ask no I don't know who they are."

"Wait, but what if I turn down this offer?" Lucy asked "We just got in a body from the police and I should be helping Levy on it-"

"Heartfilia someone else can help McGarden on that, this is a one in a life time opportunity for you. You're only a what? A two year forensic scientist? You might not get this opportunity again anytime soon so I suggest you take the chance now to get you name out there since I now you would much prefer working with murders and such, correct?" Porlyusica said, taking a break from her small lecture to wait for Lucy's response to this question.

Lucy nodded her head sharply as she said "Yes I would prefer to work in that aspect rather than centuries old bodies."

"Well then I don't see why your whining over this" Porlyusica said with a huff "You should at least feel happy that I thought of you for this opportunity rather than one of your many seniors. There's no point in looking a gift horse in the mouth."

"Of course Dr. Porlyusica" Lucy said quickly realizing that even if she hadn't wanted to be a part of the investigation there would have been no way out of it anyway.

"Great, I'm glad you understand" Porlyusica said as she stood back up "Now it's time for you to meet you partner and go to the scene of the crime I believe."

"Why would I be going to the scene of the crime? Haven't they collected the body and have sent it back to the lab by now?" Lucy asked as she followed Porlyusica.

"Well they've been having some problems retrieving the body" Porlyusica said.

"What do you mean having some problems retrieving the body?" Lucy asked.

"Read what's in the folder on the ride girl" Porlyusica said "It will explain the basics of what they know so far."

Lucy did look over the contents of the folder as they drove to the FBI agency, but there was hardly anything except for the conversation between the person who had called and the 911 dispatcher. To sum up that one piece of paper there was a body floating in the river. But Lucy didn't exactly understand why she was being called in for such a thing, it could have just been a druggie or a drunk that fell into the river and drowned. But Lucy did hope it was more than that.

When they arrived at the FBI building Lucy was nervous to say the least, who was she going to be paired with? Would it be a guy or a girl? Old or young? Grouchy or nice? Friendly or stiff? Lucy hoped they'd at least be a little bit friendly or else this might turn into a very chilly case. She was shifting her weight from foot to foot on their ride up in the elevator and could feel her heart speed up a bit when they stood in front of the doors to the office of Porlyusica's friend. On the door was a shiny plaque that read "Chief Makarov Dreyar".

Porlyusica opened the door without a single knock and barged right in.

"Why hello Porlyusica" said an old man sitting behind a desk "I see you forget that knocking is the more polite thing to do." Next to him stood a man that Lucy assumed was the FBI agent that she was being partnered with. Lucy scanned him over he was built rather well from what she could tell, but who knew what he looked like under the suit. His chin was sharp and defined. His green eyes seemed to be almost smiling even when his face remained emotionless. She stopped for a few seconds when she noticed his hair though she didn't know how she could have missed it when she had first walked into the room. It was pink, a vibrant pink that stuck out in all directions almost as if he had forgotten to brush his hair that morning. But other than that little surprise he was rather handsome.

"It's not like you ever knock either Makarov and it's not like you don't give me a heads up before calling me to ask for a forensic scientist on a case that you wanted to begin almost an hour ago" Porlyusica said as she rolled her eyes before pointing a finger at Lucy. "This is Lucy Heartfilia, she's a forensic scientist at the lab I work for and I believe she is skilled enough to help you out."

"Hello" Lucy said with a small wave. Makarov nodded his head at her and the man stepped forward and offered out his hand.

"This is one of my more…driven agents, Natsu Dragneel. He'll be the main agent on this case" Makarov said as he gestured at Natsu.

"Hello" he said before sticking his hand out more at her.

"Oh um" Lucy said before taking his hand "Hello, I'm looking forward to working with you" she knew the smile on her face was fake and was more for polite reasons than anything but he didn't need to know.

"I'm looking forward to working with you as well" Natsu said as a bright smile lighted up his face. Lucy could feel a blush rising to her cheeks before she chastised herself, no, no getting a crush on an FBI agent with pink hair especially one that you were being partnered with.


	2. Astrophobia (Fear of Celestial Spaces)

Natsu has never been a timely person, but he had always managed to get to places semi on time. But today he was running almost a good half an hour late for work and he knew he was in for an impending ass whooping from the chief if he wasn't at his desk when he did his normal rounds.

He did have a kind of decent reason for being late, the day before he had gotten into a scuffle with a suspect and the guy had ended up getting him good in the face. His right cheek had been slightly swollen and throbbing in pain we had woken up that morning, after he had hit the snooze button at least four times was when he noticed it. So he had been a bit pre-occupied that morning.

So that's why Natsu had a bagel that he had randomly grabbed that morning stuffed in his mouth and was currently tying his tie while he rode up the elevator. He swears he's totally professional, just not at all time sensitive.

The elevator dinged and Natsu stepped out onto his floor, or the floor where pretty much every FBI agent had a desk at. Speed walking (he couldn't be too inconspicuous) his way over to his desk that was clumped together with the others that was meant to promote problem solving or something along those lines. Most of the agents just ignored him since they were used to it, the only one to look away from their work when he pulled out his chair was his frenemy and co-agent Gray.

He glanced over at Natsu before shaking his head at him and saying "You just missed Makarov's daily walk around."

"Shit" Natsu said as he plopped down into his chair with a huff.

"He wasn't too pleased about you not sitting in your chair looking all bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to work after the stunt you pulled yesterday" Gary said absently, devoid of all emotions for Natsu and the beating he'd be facing later.

"What stunt?" Natsu asked as he scooted his chair in and turned on his computer's monitor "I didn't do anything stupid or against the rules yesterday."

"Yeah you did" Gray said as he scribbled something down on a sticky note "You went and punched the suspect in the face instead of carefully approaching the matter since there were civilians in the area."

"Is that what chief said?" Natsu asked feeling a cold sweat coming on; he was more than just in for a good yelling. He would end up being a victim in a case they'd be solving soon.

"Word for word" Gray answered as he clicked his pen a few times before putting it down as Natsu opened his mouth again.

"But the reason I punched the dude was because there were civilians" Natsu whined as the other man just rolled his eyes.

"Dude you knew he had a bomb in the area and a button to push whenever he felt like setting it off" Gray said with a sigh as he shook his head.

"That's why I punched him before he could take out the button! He could have made it so it set off if he died or something! I was just taking precautions" Natsu said with crossed arms.

"But you and I both know that's not the procedure we have been taught to use if we are faced with that situation. Plus you had another guy there with you, if you want to be reckless and kill yourself then fine. But you can't just go and put another agent and civilians lives at stake based on a whim you have" Gray said "You could have gotten people killed yesterday."

"It wasn't some stupid whim" Natsu muttered under his breath as he logged into the computer.

"Listen I don't have any more time to listen to your complaining, save it for the chief, I have to leave to talk to this crazy lady who claims she's being watched through her computer" Gray said as he pushed back from his desk and stood up.

"Have fun" Natsu grumbled "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"That doesn't limit me much" Gray said with a smirk before walking away leaving a squawking Natsu. Huffing, Natsu sat back in his chair and turned his attention to the computer and his work. He needed to write a report for the chief about the job he and the other agent had completed the day before. Maybe he could use this as a way to get back in his chief's good graces and apologize for whatever he did wrong yesterday.

Sighing he opened up the file from yesterday before he began typing away at the keyboard. By the time he had finished it was almost lunch and his hands were beginning to cramp up. Leaning back in his chair he looked around to see if there anything interesting going on but was disappointed to see that nothing out of the ordinary was going on. Heck, the place looked like it could pass for a regular office!

Natsu was beginning to wonder if he could get away with a quick nap or take an early and longer lunch break when he felt someone tap him on the shoulder. Whirling around, he saw the chief standing behind him.

"Dragneel, come into my office. We need to have a little chat" Makarov said, his face all business with an edge in his voice.

"Aye sir-um I mean chief" Natsu said before quickly correcting himself, he really needed to act all business and protocol meeting today. Jumping out of his chair he followed Makarov who despite his old age could walk extremely fast, almost as though he jogged instead of walking.

For once, Natsu followed him silently to his office and walked in almost robotically before Makarov looked back at him and said "Close the door Dragneel."

"Yes Chief" Natsu said, closing the door before turning his attention back to Makarov.

"Now then Natsu" Makarov began, he had switched over to his first name and Natsu was beginning to sweat again. This meant he was about to get a lecture and these normally ended with a stern 'I expect better of you' and no decent case for weeks. It was beginning to look like Natsu was going to be on patrol and if Makarov was feeling extra sinister, trainee duty. Please let some god have some mercy on him.

"Listen Chief, I'm really sorry for what I did during yesterday's arrest! I swear I'll never do it again" Natsu said, his words spilling from his lips quickly as he tried to best to cover for himself.

"Natsu, do you even know what you did wrong yesterday?" Makarov asked as he folded his hands together and sat forward in his chair.

"Ummm" Natsu said as he tried to wrack his brain for what exactly Makarov was angry about again, at least according to Gray "How I arrested the suspect?"

"Yes, but what exactly am I angry about?" Makarov asked before letting out a loud sigh.

"Putting civilians and my partner in danger, I mentioned it in my report" Natsu answered before letting out an internal sigh, he had remembered what Gray had told him.

"How?" Makarov pressed much to Natsu's chagrin.

"Ummm, well-" Natsu said scrambling his brain for what he really did wrong because he still didn't see what he had done wrong yesterday.

"Did Gray warn you this morning that I was angry?" Makarov asked.

"Yeah" Natsu said as he moved his gaze to the ground to avoid Makarov's gaze.

"I thought so" Makarov said with a shake of his head "Natsu you attacked the suspect yesterday with no warning even though you had been told to handle him with extreme caution since we had reason to suspect he had a bomb in the area."

"Which he could activate" Natsu said doing his best to keep his anger controlled "I attacked him because I saw him reach into his coat!"

"Then you should have shot him instead you idiot! Or do what you've always been told to do, tell the guy to put his hands up and warn him at least!" Makarov retorted, clearly getting annoyed by Natsu not being able to understand simple concepts.

"But what if he had planted one of those bombs that blow when he dies or something? Why else would he have been out in the open?!" Natsu argued back as he tried to calm the anger that was beginning to course through his veins.

"Because he gets his high off of watching those people die" Makarov replied as he rubbed the bridge of his nose "You threw yourself at the suspect and then proceed to not just break his nose but dislocate his arm when you twisted it around his back to cuff him. Natsu you could get charges pressed against you if the man really wanted to. You reacted brashly and this could have endangered all the people in the surrounding area. I expect better of you."

"I'm sorry chief" Natsu said as he continued to stare at the ground. He wanted to spit back how if he hadn't done that the man could have blew up the entire plaza but refrained knowing it would only end with more yelling.

"I know you are Natsu, so as I way to redeem yourself" Natsu perked up a bit once hearing this "I'm giving you an assignment that will help teach you more about teamwork" Makarov finished as Natsu felt his stomach fall. He was getting to work with trainees he could feel it the minute he heard Makarov use the word 'teamwork'.

"So what exactly am I doing?" Natsu asked, worried to hear the answer to his question.

"You're getting a case that we just got a call in for about twenty minutes ago" Makarov said "An unidentified man has been found floating in a river in town."

"And the FBI is getting called in for this case because?" Natsu asked "This seems more like a police case."

"That's cause it is" Makarov said with a nod as Natsu let out an undignified squawk "I called in a favor from one of my friends at the police station."

"So I'm learning teamwork with the police?" Natsu asked feeling his eyebrow raise; he already knew half of them so it's not like this was going to be something hard or challenging for him to do.

"Nope, I have another friend who has been talking about a worker who is very passionate about dead bodies, especially when they might have been murdered" Makarov said with a small laugh.

"So you're pairing me up with a possible psychopathic coroner?" Natsu asked.

"No, they're forensic scientists. There's a bit of a difference" Makarov answered "I want you to work with them on this case to determine if it was intentional or an accident, and if your able to do that without breaking protocol I'll forgive you."

"Okay then chief" Natsu said with a nod though he had a feeling this case would end up being a simple and textbook case "But I bet you twenty bucks it was just a druggie or drunk that fell into the river and drowned."

"Make it fifty and we might have a deal Dragneel" Makarov said, back with the last name, always a good sign that he wasn't as pissed off "Anyway they're coming by so the two of you can meet. Then the two of you will head to the crime scene together and check out the body if they've managed to bring it in."

"Got it chief" Natsu said with a nod before looking towards the door. He wasn't exactly sure how to feel about this entire situation. It's not like he normally works much with forensics since he normal just asks them for results and what they mean and nothing more. So what the heck else was he supposed to do besides that with this person?

"I suggest you use this to learn how to bounce ideas and theories you have about the case off this person" Makarov suggested "I've heard they're pretty passionate about their job so they might be fine with you talking about how someone might have been brutally murdered and why."

"Yeah, I'll be sure to do that chief" Natsu said doing his best to resist rolling his eyes.

"I'm serious Dragneel, use this as a good opportunity" Makarov said just as a pink haired women burst into the room. "Why hello Porlyusica" Makarov said as he watched the women burst into his office without a knock as a blonde hair girl trailed behind her "I see you forget that knocking is the more polite thing to do."

Natsu took this as an opportunity to size up the girl, who was presumably going to be his so called partner on this so called case. She was certainly well endowed with lots of curves. Her face was definitely one he would call relatively cute and her blue eyes went well with her blonde hair he supposed. But a pretty face didn't mean anything to him, she seemed to be emitting an aloof air and it put him off. He hoped with all his being she didn't have some god complex or was a narcissist. Other than that nothing else really stood out to him. Her outfit was pretty simple and she had on a lab coat on with a name badge on it. Maybe it wouldn't be that bad and she wouldn't want too much to do with him.

"It's not like you ever knock either Makarov and it's not like you don't give me a heads up before calling me to ask for a forensic scientist on a case that you wanted to begin almost an hour ago" the women that Makarov called Porlyusica said as she rolled her eyes before pointing a finger at the girl behind her "This is Lucy Heartfilia, she's a forensic scientist at the lab I work for and I believe she is skilled enough to help you out."

The girl, Lucy, waved and gave a small but seemingly pleasant "Hello." Makarov nodded his head at her and Natsu stepped forward and offered out his hand. It was the polite thing to do and he hoped she wouldn't be like the last person he had tried to do this to, they had just kinda stared down at his hand like it was offending them.

"This is one of my more…driven agents, Natsu Dragneel. He'll be the main agent on this case" Makarov said as he gestured at Natsu.

"More like only agent" Natsu thought to himself before saying "Hello" and sticking his hand out further towards her, had she not the message or…

"Oh um" Lucy said before taking his hand "Hello, I'm looking forward to working with you." A smile spread across her face and Natsu was able to tell in less than a second that it was fake. Looked like little Miss. Scientist wasn't too happy about this arrangement either.

"I'm looking forward to working with you as well" Natsu said as a smile just as fake spread across his face, maybe he and this girl would get along.


	3. Xenophobia (Fear of Strangers)

The current situation was…awkward to say the least. Lucy was currently sitting in the passenger seat of what she figured was one of the government's many black SUVs. Her so called partner was driving and hadn't said much to her after they had been introduced other than "get in the car." He hadn't seemed so bad when they had first met but now she was beginning to think he might be a bit of a jerk.

"You know" Natsu said suddenly, breaking the silence that had formed in the car, causing Lucy to jump slightly in surprise "That was a terrible lie sweetheart."

Lucy froze in confusion at the words that had come out of Natsu's mouth before spiting back at him "Sweetheart? I don't think so."

"Ohh sorry, did I cross a line with that?" Natsu asked his tone almost distant and disinterested "Must be interrogator in me."

"And what do you mean by that?" Lucy asked deciding to brush the little sweetheart comment off.

"I just mean you aren't very good at giving a convincing lie, or smile for that matter" he answered, not taking his eyes off the road as he turned off near a river. Lucy could see the group of people by the bank of the river with blue jumpsuits on and a few police officers.

"How could you tell I was lying?" Lucy asked as she opened the car door "I thought I was pretty convincing."

"Well even if you didn't really show the normal signs of lying you didn't look me in the eyes and choose to look around my nose and mouth area to perceive that you were making eye contact. Plus your expression seemed much too strained. Plus it is kinda hard to lie to somebody who has to know when people are lying, it's kind of a part of my job" Natsu said simply as he got out of the car and slammed the door behind him.

"Oh" Lucy said simply as she followed him down towards the river.

A few of the people standing by the river looked over at them and Natsu took out what she figured was his badge and flashed it at them "FBI agent Natsu Dragneel, and the lady with me is Doctor Lacy Heartfilia-"

"It's Lucy" she said, interrupting him for a second before sending him what she hoped was an expression that said 'I don't like you.'

"Doctor Lucy Heartfilia" he said correcting himself with a small role of his eyes "We've been called in to take a look at this case and make sure it's nothing out of the ordinary. Doctor Heartfilla here is going to be getting that body you found, if you've gotten it out at least, and check over it for you. If it meets the standards of an accident and the investigation I do matches you'll get the body back and get to close the case."

"You heard the agent guys" came a voice from behind them "The FBI has this case covered for us." The man who was talking was imposing and from what Lucy could tell he was definitely one of the officers in charge. The man turned his attention away from the people crouching on the ground and focused his gaze on Lucy.

"So who exactly is she Natsu, you got some new agents in or something?" the man asked as he looked Lucy up and down causing Lucy to move slightly behind Natsu, not that she felt safe around him or anything but the guy was coming off a little bit like a pervert and a FBI agent would most likely be the safest thing to put between her and a sexual predator.

"Or something" Natsu said before hitting the man on the shoulder "And stop staring at her, your scaring her with your creepy perverted face."

"Well that's not very nice now is it Natsu?" the man asked as a pout seemed to form on his face and Lucy was beginning to wonder what she had gotten herself into.

"I'm just telling you the truth, Doctor Heartfilia here is a forensic anthropologist and she's here to look at that body you guys found" Natsu said all joking that had been in his voice earlier completely gone.

"Oooo, you're getting serious now" the man said before saying "Then the girl can look at it, we were about to zip it up and send it to whatever lab she works at. You hear that guys, you can hand over the body to Lucy here, no need to hide it anymore." Lucy turned her attention to the technicians who had been couched on the ground and saw that they had been surrounding the body.

"Can I?" she asked pointing down at the body as one of the technicians nodded before getting up and walking away. The rest soon followed and she was left looking at the corpse on the ground. It had already been put in the body bag but it hadn't been zipped up yet. Crouching down she looked over the body for a quick scan to see if anything stood out and while doing so she kind of overheard Natsu and the other man's conversation.

"So were you in on this whole little plot too Gildarts?" Natsu asked his foot tapping the ground. So now at least Lucy had a name for the guys face.

"You mean the little plot to get you to be a little more into working together with other people? Nope I had no part in it" Gildarts said, teasing obviously in his voice.

"Glad to know you were a part of this plan" Natsu said as he sighed "So can you tell me anything?"

"Well the guy that found him was a little freaked out but other than that he didn't make much of an impact on me. He said he had been walking over the bridge when he saw something floating in the water and after getting a closer look at it he saw it was a body and called 9-1-1. Nothing else much, he claims he's never seen the man before" Gildarts said before asked "So little lady, did you find anything interesting?"

Lucy jumped a little and hoped the man hadn't noticed she had been listening to them "Umm yeah, rigor mortis has already set in so that means the victim has been dead for at least six hours. The man's skin has become blue in color which means he died due to suffocating or dying due to low oxygen levels and I'm pretty positive it was because of drowning. The man has his mouth opened and there seems to be signs of a sort of white froth in his mouth which indicates that water most likely entered the victim's lungs and made contact with oxygen. Once an autopsy is done it can be confirmed whether or not there is water in the victim's lungs."

"So you're telling me the victim drowned?" Gildarts said as his face drew blank.

"All in all, yes that is exactly what I am saying" Lucy said "I'll learn more once the body has made it to a lab for me to properly look at the body."

"Well then zip up the bag and we'll send to wherever you are, which is where exactly?" Gildarts asked as he whipped out a small notebook and a pen.

"Magnolia's History Museum and Facilities" Lucy said as she zipped up the bag, covering the guy's face, she felt a little unnerved. While she was excited to actually be out in 'the field', she couldn't help shake off that there was something off about this death, it was too…..peacefully almost as if they hadn't even known what had been going on. She couldn't place her finger on what made her feel that way though so it was most likely just her imagination but she still would keep that in mind when examining the body.

"Got it" Gildarts said with a click of a pen "I'll have it sent there right away."

Lucy nodded at him before getting up from off the ground and brushing her legs, she hadn't been able to get a close look at the body since she hadn't brought gloves but there would be plenty at the lab.

"So then Heartfilia" Natsu said sliding up next to her "I take it our next stop is the History Museum."

"Who said anything about we?" Lucy asked, an edge finding her way into her voice.

"Sorry" Natsu said as he held his hands up "I just figured that since you're such a great forensic anthropologist that this would be super easy for you."

"I suppose you're right, are you sure you'll be able to handle watching me cut open a body?" Lucy asked wondering how long the guy would stick around after she had made her first cut.

"I see beat up bodies and blood on a daily basis" Natsu said with a chuckle "I think I can handle it."

"Whatever you say agent" Lucy said with a role of her eyes as she headed back to the car.

"Is that sass I sense?" Natsu asked feigning hurt "I didn't realize I had been paired up with someone who could actually match my level of sass."

"I think you're losing it actually, all the words I say are sincere" Lucy said as she tried to hold back laughter, she didn't know what but that man saying the world sass just seemed so...odd.

"There it is again" Natsu said, pointing at her as a smile crossed his face and Lucy was beginning to think that she may be able to grow fond of that bright smile "I did get partnered with someone who understands sass, I don't think you understand how gratefully I am." He placed his hand over his heart as he finished the last bit.

"You must be getting pretty desperate if you're happy to be paired up with someone with sass, normally that's a bad thing" Lucy said, her eyebrow rose as she opened the door to the car.

"Listen, I have to work with white collared federal agents who want to go by protocol every single second they breath in that place. Heck some of them probably ask the chief if they can breathe when he's talking to them. Any sarcasm and sass is welcomed especially when I can't use it at all, most of them don't get it surprisingly" Natsu said with a sign as he stared the car and closed the car door.

"Well then since you're welcoming it so openly I think you're going to be hearing it a lot" Lucy said deciding that maybe he wasn't as much of a jerk as she had first predicted. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad working with Natsu.

"At least that means there won't be too much silence" Lucy said absently, though she had a feeling she might end up falling back on those words.

"According to everyone I work with, whenever I'm in a room there's no way it's going to be quiet" Natsu said with a small chuckle as he began to drive them towards the lab. "I didn't realize there was a lab at the museum, at least not for dead bodies and investigations."

"Oh yeah" Lucy said with a nod "Though we don't get many…fresh dead bodies. Most of the bodies I've examined while I've been there have all been age old remains. But the lab is also home to a lot of other experiments, examinations and such, it's a busy place. Which is why I suggest that you might want to go back to your office or wherever" Lucy said with a curt nod as she looked out of the corner of her eye for his response which was a mere shrug.

"I already asked my friend, who's with the police, if he could run the victim's face through their system to see if they've ever arrested him or brought him in" Natsu said after he had shrugged "So it's not like I can do much until the results for that comes back or until you find something useful with the body."

"I'm sure I can find many things about the victim through his remains, but whether it'll all be useful is debatable" Lucy said as she went over what she needed to do in her head, the first thing she would do when she got the body would be to just go straight for the kill and take out the lungs and check for water to back up her drowning theory.

"Oh?" Natsu said simply as he waited for Lucy to clarify what she meant.

"Like for example, when I look at the bones I can look for remodeling in the bones that would suggest things such as broken bones and based on certain markers I can even figure out what might have caused them. But that might just tell me the victim was a soccer player in high school, so it can be iffy on those aspects. The things that will help most is a toxicology report and examine the inner organs of the body which really isn't my forte, I might need to ask someone in the lab for help" Lucy said as she tapped her chin thoughtfully, she really couldn't be the only person working on one body, she would have to ask for help occasionally, especially when it was in an area she wasn't well trained in.

"Got it" Natsu said with a small nod before asking "Hey, you hungry? Cause I know I am, and if you are we can stop and get food somewhere."

"Well yes I suppose, I haven't really had lunch yet" Lucy said realizing that her lunch break had been her going to the FBI building and meeting Natsu.

"Good, great" Natsu said as he flipped on his blinker "We're going to stop at some good ol' fast food."

"Please tell me it's not going to be McDonalds" Lucy begged as they turned and saw the well-known golden arches.

"What do you have against McDonalds?" Natsu asked as he pulled into the drive-thru.

"Well for starters it's extremely unhealthy-" Lucy began before Natsu cut her off.

"Yeah, yeah, yada, yada" Natsu said as waved his hand around before saying "I'll order you a salad how about that."

"Hey if this is the only place you're stopping I don't want their salad" Lucy said as she strained to see the menu board.

"Oh really" Natsu said slyly "I thought that everything else was too unhealthy."

"It is but that doesn't mean I can't eat it once a year" Lucy said as she dug through her pocket to find her wallet pulling out a five dollar bill she handed it to him "Order me the chicken wrap."

"Yes Heartfilia" Natsu said with a wink before taking her bill.

"Please promise me you'll never do that again" Lucy said as she shook her head, honestly she hadn't pinned him at all for a flirt but maybe the pink hair had just offset her judgment.

"What, wink at you?" Natsu asked "Sorry I'm just trying my darnest to make this atmosphere a little bit more bearable than silence."

"Oh I thought we agreed to sarcasm, not flirting?" Lucy asked.

"It was a sarcastic wink" Natsu said as he winked again.

"I didn't realize there were different types of winks" Lucy asked as she rolled her eyes.

"You have a lot to learn then Heartfilia" Natsu said as he drove forward to order their food. Lucy was defiantly beginning to get that feeling again where she felt like this was going to be a long few days.

By the time they had gotten their food, and eaten it on the ride back to the history museum (Lucy was sure there had been at least five times where she thought she was going to die right then and there) but they had arrived in one piece and now she could go and examine the body.

She sped down the hallway to the lab with Natsu close at her heels while saying offhandedly to him "You know shouldn't you at least obey the laws that the government sets?"

"Are you talking about me eating while driving?" Natsu asked before quickly rebutting it "I was hungry and we all know that everyone does it."

"That doesn't mean it's safe" Lucy said as she slid her name badge through the slot for the second time that day.

The doors were opening as Natsu argued back at her "Come on, there is no way you haven't done it either, what is with you and this seemingly need for perfection or something?"

"Or something" Lucy muttered as she walked through the doors before saying louder "I would just prefer the driver of a car with other passengers in it didn't do things that distract them."

"Okay then fine, I promise to never eat again in a car while driving" Natsu said as he followed her, holding his hands out in front of him.

"Uh-huh" Lucy said as she walked over to body that was already sitting on a lab table.

"Oh Doctor Heartfilia" said the cheerful tone of the intern, if Lucy remembered correctly her name was Yukino something "Some people dropped that off not too long ago for you, I figured I should move it to the table to make it a little easier for you."

"Thank you Yukino" Lucy said, giving the girl a little nod before walking over and unzipping the bag.

Lucy noticed the girl glance over at Natsu from the corner of her eye before the other girl said "Well I must get going, Levy might still need my help."

Lucy perked up a bit at Levy's name and remembered about the body from earlier, she would need to find Levy and find out if she had found anything else. But for now she would have to figure out the best way to check the lungs for water and the first way to start was getting the body out of the bag.

Turning to Natsu she saw he was looking around the lab almost uninterested "Can I get some help with this body?" she asked as she pointed down at the bag.

Natsu looked over at her and shrugged before saying "Yeah sure, what do you need me to do?"

"Well um put on some gloves first" Lucy said as she realized she hadn't put any one either.

"What are the gloves for? Something to do with cross contamination or something?" Natsu asked as Lucy pulled on a pair of gloves.

"Yes, exactly why we need to wear gloves" Lucy said before holding the box of gloves out to him.

"Okay" he said as he took a pair of gloves and put them on without complaint.

"Now then" Lucy said as she looked down at the body "You pick up the upper body and I'll pick up the lower half."

"Okay then, so that means I'm picking this guy up by his shoulders?" Natsu asked as he walked to the front of the body.

"Exactly" Lucy clarified as she walked down to the legs "You ready?" she asked as she glanced up to Natsu. He nodded as he placed his hands underneath the corpse's shoulders. "Okay, on three. One" Lucy said as she wrapped one hand each around the victims legs "Two" she tensed up "Three" the two of them then heaved the body up about an inch out of the bag.

"So where is he headed?" Natsu asked as he held his half of the corpse up with what looked like ease, Lucy on the other hand wasn't feeling the same way.

"To the table next to it" Lucy huffed as she gestured at the table with a nod of her head. Together, with much hassle on Lucy's part, they managed to place the body on the other table.

"Great" Lucy said, one thing done.

"So I take it you got it from here?" Natsu asked as he watched Lucy suck in air.

"Unless you want to help get his clothes off then no" Lucy said as she looked up to see that Natsu's face said it all "Good, so if you're going to stay around just promise not to break anything or touch anything without asking me first."

"Got it boss" Natsu said with a small chuckle before walking away "Hey is it okay if I touch this wall?" he asked, sarcasm dripping in his voice as he pointed at a wall.

"Of course just try not to break it" Lucy said back before turning her attention back to the body.

"No promises" Natsu said back before leaning up against the wall and taking out his phone. Lucy figured this meant he would be fine on his own. She stripped the body of its clothes before covering the lower half of the body with a sheet. She examined the body once again and again found no sign of any external damage that the naked eye could see. She checked the corpse hands and found that they didn't seem to have any scratches on it. Normally in drowning victims it was found that the hands had been damaged from the person struggling to get back up to air but that didn't mean that drowning still wasn't an option.

Lucy took a step back from the body and looked over it once again, she wouldn't need to strip the bones if she found out the cause of death had been drowning. So now she just needs to get some tissues to run a toxicology test and to figure out how to check the lungs for water.

Taking out a pair of surgical scissors she hesitantly made the first cut to the flesh, if she remembered correctly the best way to check for drugs and substances in a body was through the blood but if she couldn't get enough then she would have to get a piece of the liver. She'd managed to get lucky and was able to salvage enough blood from the area she cut to run a test.

"Can I trust you on your own for like ten minutes?" Lucy asked, looking over her shoulder at Natsu for his answer.

He continued tapping at his phone as he said "Sure, there isn't anything interesting around here."

"Okay then, I better not come back and find that the body is hanging from the ceiling" Lucy said as she turned away and began to walk out of the room.

She heard him call after her "I don't think this guy would be much of a party animal anyway." She shook her head and kept on walking right into Levy.

"Oh Lucy" Levy said once she had realized who she had bumped into "I didn't realize you had gotten back."

"Levy, you're just the person I wanted to see" Lucy said as she handed Levy the file she had dropped.

"Let me guess, you want to know if I found anything else about the body we had this morning?" Levy asked with an almost knowing smile on her face.

"Well yes" Lucy admitted, she had almost forgotten about the body from earlier that morning "But I also need to ask your advice."

"So what do want first, my advice or more info on the body from this morning?" Levy asked.

"Well I guess I'm a bit more interested in if you found anything else about the body" Lucy said kicking herself for being more interested in that body, but it's not like the one in the other room was going to get up and walk away.

"I called the original lab the body was at and asked about the bruises on the corpse's back" Levy said "I was soon told by them that during the transport of the body from their lab to our lab, the body had a misfortunate mishap where it fell down the stairs at the other lab. The person I talked to said that someone was supposed to have left a note in the file for us but it seems they had forgotten."

"So you're back to square one with the body then?" Lucy asked feeling a little bit sadden by finding out that her original theory had been wrong.

"Not exactly" Levy said "I called the police and asked them to check the scene once again to see if anything had fallen around the area the victim had been found in since we both deduced that they had been hit in the head by a square object. They soon found that a box had been missing from a shelf and they found it around the area the victim had been hit; it had slid under a piece of furniture. They found blood on it and we soon ruled the death had been accidental."

"Oh" Lucy said "Well that's good that you figured out what had happened to the victim."

"Yes I suppose you're a bit disappointed that your murderer theory was a bust" Levy said with a laugh.

"Not really" Lucy said "So the advice I need to ask you…"

"Ask me anything" Levy said

"Okay, what would you recommend as the best way to find water in the lungs of a possible drowning victim?" Lucy asked "I know you're also a registered coroner so I figured you'd be the best person to ask."

"Well" Levy said as she placed her hand on her chin "There's two ways to do it but the easiest way is to use a probe or a mini camera and send it down to the lungs, but that might be a bit much for you. If you want I can check for you, I've finished up for the day and have some spare time on my hands."

"Really Levy?" Lucy asked as the other girl nodded her head "Thank you that would be a big help."

"No problem Lucy, there's no way you can do this all by yourself" Levy said with a wave of her hand "If you need any help just ask me."

"Thanks Levy" Lucy said before hurrying off to submit the blood for testing. By the time she had dropped it off with the lab technician, Mirajane, and had made it back to where the body was, Levy was already finished checking the lungs.

When she walked back over to the body Natsu said "Some girl came by and did something with the body and then wrote something down, she said you had asked her for help."

"Oh yes, that was Levy McGarden, she's one of my coworkers" Lucy said "I asked her for help since she's more skilled in dealing with flesh bodies then me."

"Levy" she heard him mutter "I know that name from somewhere."

"Did you say something?" Lucy asked catching him slightly by surprise.

"No, just thinking out loud" Natsu said with a shrug before going back to his phone "By the way, they found a match for the victim. His name is Vincent Jeb, 23 years old, arrested three times both for disturbing the peace."

"And how was he disturbing the peace?" Lucy asked as she read over the note Levy had left.

"All three times he was high as a kite and was making a bit too much noise in the middle of the night" Natsu said with a shake of his head "I swear."

"Well good news, for us not the victim, but cause of death was most definitely drowning "Lucy said as she held up Levy's note "My friend found water in the lungs so now we have cause of death but we still don't know whether it was accidental or not."

"Will the test or whatever you're running figure that out?" Natsu asked.

"Maybe, it depends on whether it comes back clean or not" Lucy said "From there we can decide how the victim died."

"Did you find anything else interesting about the guy?" Natsu asked as he got off the wall and walked over to the body.

"Kind of, I found a tattoo on his arm" Lucy said as she gestured at the ink on the man's wrist. Natsu leaned over and looked at it. While she was cleaning up the supplies she noticed Natsu's face turning pale "Hey are you alright-"

"I know that tattoo" Natsu said wide eyed before turning around and heading towards the doors.

"Hey wait a second" Lucy called after him before giving in and hurrying after him "What do you mean by that?"


	4. Toxophobia (Fear of Being Poisoned)

Natsu was impatiently tapping his foot up and down as he waited for the elevator to reach the fifth floor. Lucy was standing next to him with her hands knotted together as she looked around elevator, not like there was much to take in though. She had followed after him when he had ran out of the lab to go check on a file on his computer, she had insisted on coming along since according to her if he could follow her she could follow him if she was interested.

He swore he had seen that tattoo before, and from the way it seemed to be burning in his mind made him think he had seen more than once before. It could only belong to jail gang if it was one he could find on the system, but it might give suspicion that this case may be more than an accident.

The elevator dinged and Natsu hurried to his desk with Lucy close behind him. Turning on his monitor he wiggled the mouse until the screen lit up. Clicking the file folder, he scrolled through looking for one that stuck out. He knew it was on one of these files but he couldn't remember it for the life of him.

"What are you looking for exactly?" Lucy asked as she looked over his shoulder at the screen.

"Not too sure" Natsu muttered as his eyes slid over all the file names until he saw the one that stuck out among all the others "Possible Linked Cases?", he never said he was good at naming files.

"What?" Lucy asked, not hearing what he had said, as Natsu clicked on the file. Up popped a file that he had been working on for about six months now, and on it was sixty-seven separate cases of body dumps that the FBI hadn't considered linked. Natsu had another theory. Scrolling down a few pages he found it, the tattoo, and numerous pictures of it. Glancing over the notes he had left he felt a cold chill run through him, he remembered now why he had been keeping this file up to date. All of the people on this file had that tattoo somewhere on their bodies.

"That's the tattoo" Lucy murmured from behind him, she wasn't one hundred percent sure what was going on but she had a feeling that it didn't bode well.

"I knew I had seen that tattoo somewhere else before, sixty-seven other times to be exact" Natsu said as he stared hard at the screen. The notes he had on the page were little, it was mainly filled with all the pictures of the tattoos. It didn't seem to need to follow a certain color or placement. They were a variety of colors and only a few were even in the same spot on the skin.

"What exactly is all of this?" Lucy asked in barely a whisper. Natsu looked around the office and was relieved to see that almost no one was left, even though it had only become five o' clock, it was a Friday which somehow also led to most people leaving by then. At least he could talk to Lucy about it, if someone overheard him and decided to be a dick and tell the chief he might get himself another lecture for various reasons.

"This was…..a possible connection I was looking at" Natsu said as he rubbed the back of his head as he tried to figure out how to explain exactly what had brought him to document all of this.

"Well I can see why you thought it was connected" Lucy said "If they all had the tattoo who knows what it could mean. It could be an underground organization that is being slowly picked off, or maybe it could be some weird type of mass suicide."

"If it was a suicide don't you think they would die on the same day?" Natsu asked "These bodies have been found sporadically spread around town for the past 6 months."

"So what did-do you think it is?" Lucy asked.

"Honestly at first I didn't have any idea, for a while I thought maybe it was a serial killer that tattooed their victims like they were branding them. But then I couldn't find any tattoo artists that matched to that style. Someone told me it was probably someone who was self-taught and didn't work in a shop" Natsu said with a sigh, it was around that time when he has run into trouble.

"So you hit a dead end?" Lucy asked, resting her chin on her hand as she continued to scan the monitor.

"More like I was forced into one" Natsu said as a laugh managed to escape from him, he had just remembered how he had been forced to stop actively working on case, it hadn't been the first time and it wouldn't be his last "My chief found out I was actively pursuing the case during work hours without his permission. He made me come to his office with all everything I had collected and after looking over it he told me that I was practically chasing my tail in circles and that I couldn't base something on one thing that was the same."

"Isn't that technically what a connection is?" Lucy asked, confused on how Natsu's theory could have been shot down so quickly.

"Yeah, but when I was presenting it to him there were only ten bodies and they had all been killed in different ways, so that means no serial killer. All of the victims were criminals so the higher ups didn't really care about brushing it all off to the side. So I was shut down from continuing to pursue my hair brained theory" Natsu said as he sat back in his chair, at the time he had been so enraged that the possible connection could just be brushed off that he had almost handed in his badge that day. But he had soon realized that quitting angrily wouldn't do something, so he had continued it in secret on his own time.

"But I take it you didn't since you have all of that" Lucy said as she gestured at the monitor.

"I collect all of this on my spare time, I had to bribe a few police officers and some other agents to get some of the files for this but I figured it be useful some days" Natsu explained, glad that his theory and hard work had payed off.

"So what do you need to do with all of this now?" Lucy said pointing at all of the pictures on the screen.

"I'm going to have to figure out what the tattoo means or what it's connected to" Natsu said as tapped his finger to his cheek "I might have to meet up with someone to find out for sure but I do have a theory I want to investigate."

"And that would be?" Lucy pressed. Natsu wasn't really sure why she was so interested on the problem solving of the case but her boss had said she had been interested in this kind of thing.

"The first thing I thought of when I looked at this tattoo was of the crime gang Spriggan 12, they have matching tattoos that pretty much shows their loyalty to the gang. This tattoo looks very similar to theirs" Natsu said before point at the screen at the tattoo "The only difference is this part of it." He was pointing to the insignia in the middle "The Spriggan 12 has a different symbol in it, but at first glance they look similar."

"So you think that this might be related to a crime gang?" Lucy asked, looking a bit too excited to finding out they might be dealing with a crime gang or a gang war.

"It might be a rival gang that's trying to kill them off" Natsu said "But at the same time that doesn't make sense since no other bodies have been found that could belong to another gang."

"So another dead end?"

"Not exactly, I have a friend who might be able to give me some information on these tattoos" Natsu said as he printed out a picture of the tattoo.

"So should I be doing anything to help?" Lucy asked as she shifted on her feet.

"Look over the body again, do whatever it is you do" Natsu said as he grabbed the picture "And check to see if there was anything in his system."

"Already on it" Lucy said with a nod as the two of them headed to the elevator together.

"I'll drop you off at the lab on my way to meet my friend" Natsu said as he pressed the button for the ground floor.

"Much appreciated" Lucy said though it seemed she was doing her best to contain her excitement.

"What are you so happy about?" Natsu asked almost absently, he didn't really expect much of an answer but he ended up getting more than he had originally thought.

"W-well you see" Lucy sputtered a she realized she wasn't hiding her excitement as well as she had thought "The main reason I studied forensics was so I could be in a career that worked with law enforcement and for a while I planned on being a police officer. But I soon realized that my science grades could lead me to what seemed like a more exciting route, figuring out how someone died. To me it seemed like it was a crucial piece of evidence in an investigation and I just saw it as the ultimate mystery. So I decided that I was going to take forensic anything in college. I picked the anthropology branch since everything else seemed not at all what I wanted, among other things."

"Oh, wow" Natsu said, taken back slightly by Lucy's complex answer, it was unusual for someone to pour out emotional or life changing decision to him.

"That was a much heavier answer than you planned on getting, huh?" Lucy asked as pink dusted her cheeks light which honestly made her look super cute and then four seconds later Natsu was slapping himself for thinking that.

"Not today brain" Natsu thought scornfully "You're not going to mess this up for me with _feelings_!" Natsu than remembered he hadn't yet answered Lucy's question "It's no problem." Real good save Natsu.

/

Natsu had dropped her off outside the lab and Lucy had hurried inside without looking behind her. She was still slightly embarrassed about how she had just went on to him about her whole choice on why she picked the job she did instead of saying something simple like "Oh I just like looking at dead bodies" or something. As much as she hated admitting, Natsu was really easy to talk to for some reason. Words just flowed from her when she talked to him and she didn't want to end revealing too much about herself to a stranger that she probably wouldn't talk to after they finished this case.

Opening the lab doors again she walked back to where the body was, meeting up with Mirajane there.

"Lucy" Mira said as she held up a file for her "I have the results of what you dropped off."

"Thank you Mira" Lucy said with a smile as she took the file from her before flipping it open.

"I hope you don't mind that I took a little peek at it" Mira said as she pinched her index finger and her thumb close together.

"You were the one who did this for me so I don't see how you already wouldn't know" Lucy scanned down the paper and there it was "Drugs present" and below it listed what had been found.

"All I have to say is whoever the heck that body belongs to, I hope they were in the hospital with some intense pain to have that many sedations in them" Mira said before walking off with a cheerful wave.

Lucy's eyes raked over all of the substances listed below, 50 mg of doxylamine, and traces of alcohol and cannabis were found in the man's system. While the other two substances were in such small quantities that it meant they were still relatively sober, the sedative proved to be a bit excessive to say the least. It was probably enough to knock out a horse since it was half the recommended amount.

This case was getting more and more curious by the second. It was beginning to look less like an accident and more like a murder. Looking over at the body Lucy decided it was time to de-flesh the bones so she could get a better look at what mysteries might be hiding from her.

/

Natsu watched Lucy as she walked into the building before he whipped out his phone; he needed to make a phone call before he went anywhere. About four minutes later he had his destination, The Tower of Heaven.

When he pulled up to the place he grimaced. The Tower of Heaven was located down by the docks and was sandwiched between many other shady bars and business, and it somehow managed to look the shadiest out of all of them. Though considering who he was meeting up with it did make sense he would pick this kind of place. It's not like he could be seen in any upstanding place without the cops being on him in seconds.

Sighing as he looked up at the half burned out neon sign that dimly read "Te Towr o Heaven" it seemed their letters h,e and f had burned out at some point. Yeah, he was beginning to wonder just what kind of people he would see in there, he hoped none of them had a grudge. These were the times he was glad he carried a gun around.

Opening the bar doors he was hit with the scent of alcohol and a sour smell, he could practically feel the odor absorbing itself into his clothes, he'd probably never be able to get the smell out. Surveying the bar he saw only few people around, most were sitting by the bar with some kind of alcohol in front of them and one man seemed to be passed out at one the booths. The man he was meeting with would have stood out anywhere else, but people like him were a common sight at places like this.

So it was no surprise it took him a few seconds before pinpointing him. He was sitting in the farthest booth from the door. He was had on an overcoat and a hat that hid his face, if anyone not involved in the underground walked in they would instantly guess he was an informant. Not that that was far off from what he did, but it was more of a side job for him.

Sliding in the seat across from him he placed his hands on the table and waited for the other man to talk first. The only part of his face he could see was the familiar blue tattoo that covered the man's face.

"So what exactly did you call me for Natsu?" the man asks "You didn't really explain anything on the phone except that you needed to ask me about some things."

"Sorry, I was in kind of a rush to get some info" Natsu apologized sheepishly as he twiddled his fingers.

"I could tell considering you meeting me here at six when normally right now you would be home with your cat" the man said with mirth in his voice.

"Hardy har" Natsu said, he knew he really shouldn't be making small talk and get to the point, but he hadn't seen the guy for a while and they were friends of sorts, well it's more like they had mutual friend but still.

"So what is it that you need?" the man asked as he sat back in the seat and crossed his arms, waiting for Natsu's request.

"I need to ask you to tell me anything you can about this tattoo that has been turning up on too many dead bodies lately" Natsu said as he took the picture out from his jacket. Sliding it across the table to the other man he waited as for the man's answer.

"This doesn't look so good" the man mumbled as he shook his head before looking back up at Natsu and asking "How many people have you found dead with this tattoo recently?"

"Sixty-seven in the past six months" Natsu answered, this wasn't going to be good if he was getting worried.

The other man made a noise of surprise before saying "This tattoo belongs to one of the many branches of the Spriggan 12 gang run by the infamous crime boss, Zeref" the man looked Natsu straight in the eye as he added "But you already knew that, huh?"

Natsu grumbled at that unneeded extra comment. This was quickly turning into the worst possible situation; hopefully it wasn't one of the bigger ones. "Which branch is it from exactly?"

"Tartaros, you probably haven't heard much about them, at least in the news, they're a large drug ring. They mainly sell and produce drugs, but since they're the second strongest gang under Zeref's control this means they end up doing some of his dirty work that he doesn't want to risk giving the Spriggan 12. So the only times they really show up in the news is after they've done one of those jobs. Because of that they're not a group to you'd want to get on their bad side, they've been known to do some pretty grisly things" the man said before shaking his head "This doesn't look too good Natsu, you might be biting off more than you can chew."

"You don't have any right to tell me how to live my life or how to do my job considering how at any minute I could let some information slip about you and I'm sure they police would be happy to get it considering they've been trying to arrest for about ten years now" Natsu said, he normally wouldn't threaten something like that to the man considering everything the man knew about him. The man knew plenty of things about Natsu that if he told any law enforcer, well who knew what they'd do to him but he defiantly wouldn't have his badge anymore. Though he supposed this is why they had formed an unlikely partnership and friendship. Natsu kept him from being captured and locked up and he in return kept his mouth sealed about Natsu's past and occasionally helped him on cases.

"Was the earlier comment a bit too much, I can see I hit a nerve" the man said with a chuckle "But here's a bit of information, from what I've heard on the streets Tartaros has been having a bit of trouble lately."

"What kind of trouble?" Natsu asked, his brow rose as he leaned forward.

"Internal" the man said with a small nod "Spies from other gangs have been infiltrating their ranks and they've had about four drug busts on them in the past two weeks due to members and the spies tipping off the police. Their pretty vulnerable now, they don't know who to trust so I'm sure all these dead bodies turning up must have something to do with that. But that's all I know at the moment."

"Thanks" Natsu said as he slid out of the booth "How much do you want?"

"Nothing" the man said, shaking his head before Natsu could take out any money "Just tell Erza I said hi as payment."

"Sure" Natsu said with a chuckle before shaking his head sadly "But don't you think you should be telling her that?"

"You know I can't" the man said, sadness obvious in his voice.

"You can, she might slug you for ignoring her for this long but then she'll be so happy to see you I'm sure she won't arrest you" Natsu said before turning away from the man.

"I'll do that the same day you face your past" the man said.

"Well than I guess you're never going to see your lovely Erza ever again then" Natsu said as he shoved his hands into his pockets before making his way for the door.

"I suppose not" the man said quietly before watching Natsu go out the door.


	5. Atychiphobia (Fear of Failure)

Natsu was just getting into the car when his phone went off. Looking at the caller ID he saw it wasn't a number he knew. Accepting the call he pressed the phone up by his ear as he closed the car door behind him.

"Hello?" Natsu said as he pushed the key into the ignition.

"Hello" said a familiar voice that Natsu figured he should probably recognized but didn't "This is Lucy" ah well that answered his question.

"Heartfilia?" Natsu asked as he turned the key, he didn't know any other Lucy.

"Yes" she said matter of factly before saying "I found something interesting."

"Really?" Natsu asked "Well I learned some stuff too, about the tattoo."

"Great" Lucy said before continuing what she had been about to say "So as I was saying, I got the tox screen back for the body and-"

"I'm going to stop you right there for a second" Natsu said, cutting Lucy off. He didn't really intend to be rude by he had just looked at the time on the car's dashboard and had saw that it was past seven, and he was starting to hear his stomach growl. His first priority was finding or getting food.

"What" she said with a huff and Natsu could feel her irritability from across the town "Do you think what you learned was that much more important? Because unless you found the murderer than I'm pretty sure you didn't find anything better than what I did."

"I didn't mean to be rude" Natsu said "I just realized how late it was and that I hadn't eaten anything yet."

"Oh" he heard her say "It is pretty late, but that doesn't give you the right to interrupt me."

"I know, I was just going to ask you if you wanted to eat at that diner that is right across the street from the museum. I figured that if you hadn't eaten we could get together in person to exchange what we found" Natsu said as he began to head towards the diner. Even if she had already eaten, he didn't have any food left at home so his best bet was eating at the diner tonight.

"I guess that's a good idea, I have eaten anything yet" Lucy said before asking "But geez, that means I'll have ate out twice today."

"What you have a problem with that?" Natsu asked as he stopped at a stoplight "There has to be something there you'll deem acceptable."

"There is but still…"she said before trailing off.

"Listen; think of it as multi-tasking. We're eating and exchanging information" Natsu said "We're getting two things done at once."

The line was quiet for a few seconds before he got his answer "I'll be at the diner in five."

"Well I'll be there in about ten minutes" Natsu said as the light turned green.

"See you then" Lucy said before promptly hanging up.

/

Lucy slid into a booth before surveying the diner. It wasn't empty, there were two other customers, and she was beginning to think the best word for the place was desolate. But according to the sign they had the best pie in the state so how bad could the place really be.

While the diner was right across the street from her job she had never once been there before. Natsu wasn't there yet but what did she expect, he did say it would take him about ten minutes to get there. When the waitress approached her and offered a menu she almost told her she was waiting for someone else before realizing that it wasn't like the two of them were eating out together, together. They were just two colleagues who were meeting up to discuss the details to a case.

Taking the menu she looked over the options and had just made up her mind to get a salad when Natsu walked in. He must have noticed her relatively quickly since he immediately headed for the booth she was sitting at. He slid in across from her and asked "I forgot to ask earlier but how did you get my number? I don't remember giving it to you."

"Ahhh yes" Lucy thought as she felt her cheeks heat up slightly, she had figured that question would have been coming sooner or later. "After I finished a quick look over of the body I figured I should call you to tell you what I found. But then I realized I didn't have your number so I had to call my boss so I could call your boss to find out your number."

Natsu stared at her for a few seconds with an unreadable face before asking "You do realize that there are phone books, right?"

"Yes, I carry one on me at all times" Lucy said with a sigh before asking "So do you want me to tell you what I found out or keep giving me ridiculous advice."

"I don't know" Natsu said as he took the menu from the waitress "But I do tend to enjoy ridiculous things."

"So do want to solve this case or not?" Lucy asked as she rested her head on her hand.

Natsu hummed before turning to the waitress "I'll take the usual Gloria."

"I swear to god Natsu you're going to turn into chili at this rate" the waitress, Gloria apparently, said as she took the menu back from him before turning to Lucy "And have you decided?"

"Oh, um, yes" Lucy said as she picked up her menu and handed it back to the lady "A caesar salad please."

"Okay then" Gloria said as she scribbled something down on her note pad before saying "It'll be out shortly."

As she walked away Lucy turned back to Natsu and asked "So you come here enough to know the waitresses' names and for them to know yours?"

"Hey I'm a single guy that has almost burned down my apartment whenever I try to cook anything more than ramen" Natsu said with a shrug "I've learned to find the cheapest and best food in Magnolia."

"So then, do you know if their pie is really as great as they claim?" Lucy asked, still remembering the sign from when she had walked in.

"Oh yeah, they have the best apple pie" Natsu said getting a dreamy look on his face, the best way to his heart was definitely through food. Not that she needed to know that at all.

"So who should start first, you or me?" Lucy asked as she reeled Natsu back from his wistful staring.

"With what, our favorite pie fillings?" Natsu asked, still apparently still focused on pie.

"No, which one of us should talk first about what we found?" Lucy asked again.

"You should go first" Natsu said "You were the one who called me to tell me what you had found out."

"Okay then" Lucy said before taking a deep breath "But I have a lot to say."

"Well we have time to spare waiting for our food, so I don't think it will be a big deal" Natsu said with a shrug.

"Uh-huh" Lucy said before starting off from the very beginning "So when I got back to the lab a tech had finished testing the blood I had gotten from the victim. He honestly didn't have too much in him at the time. Traces of alcohol and cannabis were found in his system but with so little amounts he wasn't intoxicated but maybe tipsy at most."

"So our victim wasn't high or drunk when he died?" Natsu asked.

"Yes, so it rules out the theory that it was just an unfortunate accident due to the victim being intoxicated" Lucy said as Natsu nodded.

"But that doesn't get rid of the theory that it was an accident, right?" Natsu asked.

"Actually on the tox report something else was found in his body that would suggest otherwise" Lucy said.

"And what exactly was it?"

"50 mg of doxylamine was found in the victim's blood" Lucy said.

"That's a, um what do you call, a sedative?" Natsu asked.

"Yes and it was almost half the recommended amount" Lucy said.

"So that's bad, at least I'm guessing it's bad" Natsu said as he tapped his finger on the table.

"Well if the victim wanted, or if someone else wanted him, to be knocked out for a good amount of time where he wouldn't wake up no matter what then, well, they accomplished that" Lucy said as she watched Natsu's brow knit together.

"So you're telling me this might have been a murder" Natsu asked as he folded his hands together.

"It's a possibility, normally if someone is taking it as a prescription it's only recommended that they take twenty-five milligrams" Lucy said as she began to bounce her leg up and down, she was beginning to feel the earlier excitement coming back.

"Okay then, we might have a guy who got knocked out before being what, drowned while he was asleep?" Natsu asked, his one eyebrow quickly rising.

"It's a possibility since the victim would have been so out of it they might not even had been aware they were even dying" Lucy said feeling a little bit sick as he thought what might have actually happened to this man "So I decided to get the water tested."

"Why?" Natsu asked "What can the water help us with other than whether or not he drowned?"

"Well after I thought of what might have actually happened if this was a murder I came up with an…idea" Lucy said, pausing for a few seconds "I thought I should test the water to see if it matched with the water in the river the body was found in."

"And what did you find out?" Natsu asked as he leaned forward.

Taking a deep breath Lucy answered "I found it was most likely not from the same source."

"So?" Natsu asked, confusion spreading on his face.

"So it means the body might have been drowned at one body of water and brought to another one, the river" Lucy said.

"Do you know what kind of water the victim was drowned in?" Natsu asked.

"Yes, it was salt water" Lucy said "Which means the most likely place he was drowned at was by the docks."

"At least we have a possible crime scene, and now a suspicion it was murder. A dead body doesn't drown in one place and gets up and walks to another in a few hours" Natsu said looking more and more concerned.

"I have some more things to add" Lucy said as Natsu looked back over at her "The victim's phalanges, or fingers, had numerous different remodeling's on them. I'm guessing the victim got into a lot of fights, particularly fist fights."

"Well that would go along with him being a part of a gang" Natsu said as Gloria came over and placed their food down onto the table.

"So you did found out that the victim was part of a gang?" Lucy asked.

"Yep" Natsu said "But you weren't done talking about what you found on the body."

"There isn't much else worthwhile. The cause of death was drowning. He was drowned in salt water and then the body was moved to fresh water for some reason. Different remodeling done on the bones suggests that he probably was involved in many fights during his lifespan" Lucy said "Sedatives were found in his system as well as low amounts of alcohol and cannabis. There isn't much else to tell, so tell me what you found."

Placing the spoon he had picked up back into the bowel Natsu began "I met up with my friend and showed them the picture of the tattoo. They were able to tell me that it belonged to a gang known as Tartaros which is kind of like a sub gang of a much larger gang known as Spriggan 12 which is run by a man known as Zeref."

"Isn't he that infamous crime boss or something?" Lucy asked.

"Yeah he's pretty high up there on the list of most wanted criminals. But that's beside the point; he probably doesn't have a hand in this" Natsu said "According to my friend Tartaros is in some kind of internal turmoil right now. They've had a lot of problems lately so their off their guard right now. So with all of these dead bodies of their members showing up around town, it might just be due to all of that."

"Still does that really back up why so many bodies have been showing up recently?" Lucy asked.

"I don't know" Natsu said "But I'm thinking if I can find out more about whatever it is Tartaros is fighting about this will make a lot more sense."

"Wow, with all of this new information, this is starting to sound like it's going to be a pretty big case" Lucy said glancing over at Natsu nervously biting her lip. She remembered what the police officer and Natsu had been talking about earlier that day, would Natsu be off the case if it turned out to be too much?

"Yeah" Natsu said with a sigh "I'm thinking I'm going to have to tell not only my boss but yours."

"Why mine?" Lucy asked, what did she have to do with the case suddenly becoming much bigger than what it had originally thought to been.

"Well this involves a gang which could end up getting pretty messy for anyone involved" Natsu said.

"So that means that someone might get sent after me?" Lucy asked, as her faced paled slightly.

"Probably not" Natsu said quickly in hopes of calming her "But we should probably tell our bosses about this, tomorrow though."

"Why not now?" Lucy asked.

"Because this has been a long day that feels like it's been dragging on, plus we have food right in front of us that we should eat" Natsu said as he gestured at the food on the table "We'll tell them tomorrow morning after we get some sleep. We've had a busy day."

"I guess you are right" Lucy said, the day had honestly felt like it had dragged on forever, maybe this is what it's like when you have a deadline you have to follow for examining a body.

"Well than" Natsu said "Let's dig in; we can talk more about this tomorrow."

/

As Lucy wrapped a towel around her head she heard the phone go off. Water still clinging to her skin from the shower, she walked into her bedroom and picked up her phone from her bed. She read the caller ID, it was her father or as he contact name was in her phone, Jude H.

Accepting the call she said "Hello."

"Hello Lucy" came her father's usual monotone voice "How have you been? Has anything happened at work recently?"

Repressing a sigh she answered him "I've been fine father. I actually was recently given an opportunity to work with the FBI. I'm examining a victim from a criminal case, not examining an age old body."

"That's nice Lucy" Jude said no sign of any emotion in his voice "I know how much you've wanted to work with the police and such to help catch killers. Good for you Lucy, your mother would be very proud of you."

Lucy felt herself getting choked up after that comment, Jude tended to keep conversations far away from her mother, rarely mentioning her except maybe on her birthday "Yes I know father, I'm doing what she would have wanted to do if she was alive." One of the main reasons Lucy had eventually decided to major in forensic anthropology was so she could pursue the career path her mother had never been able to do.

While her mother had been perfectly qualified to do the job no one seemed to want to actually hire her, and when she had been given an opportunity to work in a lab after she had given birth to Lucy she fell sick before she could even go in for her first day. The outlook after that hadn't looked good at all.

"You're following in her footsteps Lucy" Jude said "You're being the women she had always wanted to be."

"I know father" Lucy said, sitting down on her bed, the phone call wouldn't last much longer it was only about five to ten minutes her father would take to talk to her once a week. She knew if she really wanted to talk to him she could call him but she wasn't particularly warmed up to the idea of her dad and her being buddy-buddy yet. If he wanted them to have a decent father-daughter relationship he would have to make the first steps after giving her the cold shoulder for years after the death of her mother. But when the day came for her to trust him again she would call him and not wait for his call.

"Well Lucy I will let you go to sleep" Jude said.

"Mm-hmm" Lucy said "Good night father."

"Good night Lucy" Jude said before the call promptly ended.

Setting her phone on her nightstand, Lucy got up and went over to get out something to sleep in. It was a little after nine and she was about ready to pass out. After Natsu and her had finished their little show and tell they had ate their food in relative silence, it wasn't awkward surprisingly. They even talked about some things that didn't involve the case, but they only asked each other about what other kinds of things they had worked on.

Natsu told her about some of his more interesting cases and she told him about some of the different age old remains she had looked at. It had been rather pleasant and Lucy had decided that Natsu wasn't that bad of a person and that he might actually turn out to be enjoyable to work with.

But there was no use in thinking about work anymore. She could worry about what the outcome would be of telling her boss, and Natsu's too, that the case had gotten a little bit deeper than originally expected in the morning. Throwing on a pair of sweat pants and a shirt, she slid underneath her covers and let out a content sigh.

She was excited still. The adrenaline that had built up in her throughout the day, from the case earlier that morning, to being told she would be working with the FBI and every piece of new information she had found while examining the body that would lead to the discovery of how the victim died. It all gave her a feeling of excitement that crept into her chest.

The thought that this case could put her name out there, possibly, was enough to make it hard to sleep. She was doing what her mother had always wished to do and was succeeding. Despite all of her excitement she was able to slip off into sleep.

The next morning Lucy was out the door quickly. She wasn't sure when exactly Natsu would tell his boss what they had figured out but she figured she would tell Porlyusica the minute she walked into the lab.

As she stared out the bus window she heard her phone ding. Slipping out from her pocket she saw she had text, from what she guessed was Natsu. He must have saved her number; she figured she should probably do the same considering.

 _"_ _Called my boss and told him that we needed to speak to him and your boss about some things. Supposed to meet them in his office"_ was what the text read.

Texting his back she sent him _"Okay then I should be there soon."_

She put her phone back into her pocket and tried to figure out where she would need to get off when her phone went off again. Taking it back out she saw Natsu had texted back.

 _"_ _How exactly is soon?"_

 _"_ _Like ten minutes, probably"_ Lucy texted him back before turning her attention back to the map. At least she would only need to wait out one more stop past her normal one to get to the FBI building.

About fifteen minutes later Lucy was walking towards Makarov's office. A few agents sent her some looks but other than that they didn't say anything to her.

As she stood outside of the office she wondered if she should knock or just walk in. Porlyusica had just walked in when they had come the first time but Makarov had said something about knocking, so she was about to knock on the door when it flew open to show Natsu's face.

"Oh good, you're here" Natsu said before stepping aside so she could come in "I was about to go looking for you."

"I was only a few minutes late" Lucy said as she saw Porlyusica and Makarov standing off to the side, both with unreadable expressions.

"So what is it that you two wanted to talk to us about" Porlyusica said "If you had figured out how the victim died you would have left your findings on my desk Heartfilia."

"Well I did find out how the victim died Dr. Porlyusica" Lucy said holding up her hand to defend herself before her boss cut her off.

"Well than why didn't you? If you're finished you can return to your normal work" Porlyusica said, annoyance creeping into her voice, she had never been a patient person for as long as Lucy had worked for her.

"Well you see Dr. Porlyusica we're here to talk to you about the case because while we know how the victim died, we still need to examine the body, right Heartfilia" Natsu said as he turned around to look at Lucy.

"Yes we still need to examine the bones and such since there is a tinsy possibility that..." Lucy said before she paused when she saw how the two of them were looking at her with curiosity spreading across their faces, well now was a good time as ever to throw Natsu under the bus and make him finish her sentence "Natsu why don't you tell them."

Natsu sent her a look before saying "We believe based on what we examined and discovered yesterday, that this might possibly be linked to other unsolved cases."

"How many?" Makarov asked suddenly, glaring down at Natsu as if he knew what he was about to say.

"Sixty seven" Natsu said as he waited for Makarov to reply.

"And how do you know these cases are related and how were you able to find them in such a short period of time?" Makarov asked again.

"Because this body might be kind of sorta linkedtothatonetheoryIhad" Natsu said, smashing together his words in hopes that Makarov wouldn't notice.

"What?" Makarov asked anger beginning to form on his face.

"Because they might be linked to that one theory I had a few months ago about the bodies with the same tattoo being connected" Natsu said as he waited for the fury that would soon erupt.

"I thought I told you to drop that theory" Makarov said, coldness in his voice.

Before Natsu could come to his defense Lucy did "Sir listen, while Natsu didn't listen to you isn't it good that he kept following his gut and continuing with this theory behind your back. He might have discovered something big since it turns out the tattoo all the victims have belongs to a gang-"

"The tattoo is a gang tattoo?" Makarov asked as he turned to Natsu.

"Yeah" Natsu said avoiding his gaze "According to one of my sources it belongs to the drug ring known as Tartaros. They are part of the larger group Spriggan 12."

Makarov took a deep breath before saying "So I take the two of you called us here today to tell us about that then. That this might involve one of the largest drug rings in the city, hell probably the entire country."

"Yes?" Natsu answered cautiously.

"Please sir we have proof that the man was definitely murdered and was at least involved in some sort of job or something that caused him to get into fights" Lucy said "That should be enough to at least keep this case open."

"And what is it that you found Dr. Heartfilia?" Porlyusica asked.

"The victim's phalanges show numerous remodeling's that matches up with someone who has experienced hand to hand combat numerous times before. Also water was found in his lungs which means cause of death was drowning. But what is unusual is that the water found in his lungs match up to water that would be found in the bay, not the stream the body was found in. The victim was drugged before he died due to the high levels of doxylamine present" Lucy said, barely pausing to take a breath.

"So what exactly is it that you two are trying to tell us?" Porlyusica asked "You've most likely figured how the victim died, what else do you need to do?"

"What I think they're trying to tell us Porlyusica is that they want to continue with this investigation" Makarov said.

"Yes that's exactly what we're trying to say" Natsu said "We can't keep having dead gang members showing up around town in the masses. We need to get to the root of the problem. Plus sir, please consider all that could be accomplished by pursing this case. The identity of the leader of the drug ring could be revealed and best case would be us even being able to overthrow the gang itself and get rid of one of the Spriggan 12's many branches."

"I understand what you're trying to say Dragneel" Makarov said "So I'll allow you and Dr. Heartfilia working together on continuing this case."

"Really, you'll allow it?" Natsu asked.

"Yes I'm-"Makarov said before being cut off by Porlyusica.

"Makarov, you can't just expect me to let one of my scientists continuing working on this case considering the danger that is now present?" Porlyusica said.

"Listen, I know that some of the things you may seem on T.V. may scare you but I assure you Dr. Heartfilia will be perfectly safe. Unlike in T.V. shows, the scientist or whoever is examining the body, they rarely get targeted. So it's unlikely they would come after her, if they would come after anyone it would be Dragneel."

"Thanks for making me feel better sir" Natsu muttered as Makarov ignored his comment.

"So then Dragneel, let me set some standards before I let you loose" Makarov said, drawing Natsu's attention back to him "If this case starts to look too much for you to handle I will take you off the case and substitute you for more qualified agents. Do you understand?"

"I hear you loud and clear sir" Natsu said "I promise to be on my best behavior."

"Please don't make me regret this Dragneel" Makarov said with a sigh as he watched Lucy and Natsu leave the room.

"Well than Heartfilia" Natsu said "Ready to go take down a gang."

"I do think that would look very nice on my resume Dragneel" Lucy said with a laugh "So I think I will assist you."


	6. Mnemophobia (fear of the pastmemories)

Three days later and not much had changed, except for the two new bodies that now lay beside the first one and a large pile of files from numerous different coroners. All of which depicted how the original sixty-seven bodies had died, and hopefully they were all truthful. Lucy was cautious about believing that they were all one hundred percent correct, she knew that autopsies of those who society didn't like could easily have details that had been overlooked unless the coroner was unbiased in their examination.

The two latest corpses brought the total toll up to seventy total bodies. Each of the new victims had died differently though neither of them had been as well thought out as the first body she had examined. The one body they had been sent to examine the day they had told their bosses of their findings had been stabbed multiple times, six to be exact, and had died due to blood loss.

The second body that had only been found the day before had died of a punctured lung from a bullet. Not much else could be said about the bodies other than they had the Tartaros tattoo but that didn't stop her from cleaning the bones so he had their skeletons, she had always found bones much easier to work with. The autopsy reports didn't help much either. She had spent a good chunk of her day yesterday sorting them all out. Putting the ones that were similar together until she had about thirty different piles, it seemed that if it the deaths had something to do with the turmoil going on in the group than it wasn't just a few people doing the killings. It was like the entire gang was in a full out war against one another, disposing the bodies throughout the town, maybe in hopes no one would be able to figure out that the deaths weren't sporadic.

Natsu and her had been communicating mainly through texts and phone calls, though Natsu had managed to convince her to eat with him once a day so they could share any information they had found. She was only able to report on the little she had found from the bodies, all three of the bodies seemed to have similar remodeling's, extensive remodeling on their phalanges and they all had the Tartarus tattoo. Other than their deaths, not much set them apart once she got down to the bones.

Natsu hadn't seemed to have much luck either. He didn't dig up much on the other two gang members, they both had misdemeanors on their record and both had been in jail for at least a year at some point. But other than that the only thing that connected them was the tattoo. Natsu seemed to be getting antsy, he wanted to find something ground breaking in the case or at least something that moved it further instead of keeping it at the stand still it was in currently.

He had texted her earlier that he was meeting up with someone to talk about Tartarus and see if he could get any information on their leader. Though he added that at this point he'd be happy getting anything to do with Tartarus that they didn't know.

Lucy had decided that she was going to piece this all together and figure out how all of these different deaths fit together, like pieces of a puzzle. Sometimes bones talked just as much as a person.

/

Natsu hadn't been able to find much on Tartarus, the FBI database and the internet could only tell him so much. From what he had been able to scrounge up, Tartarus had only emerged about seven years ago, or at least that was when they entered the law's vision.

They were filed as a large drug ring that sold drugs not only in Magnolia, but also having connections in other cities where they shipped out the drugs they made and got a profit back from those who sold them. They were mainly only seen as a drug ring, not that it was better than being a full out crime gang, but occasionally they had claimed responsibility to some gruesome murders.

They had claimed responsibility for the Sabertooth Pharmaceuticals Massacre, fifteen scientists that worked in the labs were brutally killed and in addition a large amount of the chemicals they were working with were stolen, and the murder of the mayor a few years back. Their record still held many gruesome killings they claimed were their work. Some didn't believe that Tartarus had done it, but that they were claiming responsibility to get some street cred.

Natsu wasn't too sure though. It seemed like they were strong enough to do these things, especially with everything that had been happening recently. But Natsu wasn't getting anywhere just sitting at his desk looking up information. He needed to get out into the field or at least meet up with someone, and he had an idea who.

Taking out his phone he dialed a number he had never thought he'd actually call. As he waited for them to pick up he wasn't too sure if they'd actually pick up. The two of them had never really seemed to see eye to eye, but now was a good time as ever to get over their differences.

He heard the call being accepted before a gruff voice said "Hello, who the hell is this?"

"You can drop the tough guy act for a few minutes" Natsu said as he tried to figure out how to convince the guy to actually meet up with hm.

"Natsu?" The man asked "Why the hell are ya even callin' me? I don't remember ever giving ya my number."

"Since you are a police officer who is currently in the middle of an investigation, it wasn't too hard to get your undercover phone number from Gildarts" Natsu answered.

"What did ya bribe 'im with?"

"Why on earth would think I'd need to bribe your boss to get my best friend's phone number?" Natsu asked, feigning hurt "I thought you knew me better than that."

"Oh shut up Natsu."

"I bribed him with getting him a six month subscription to that stupid pervy magazine he likes" Natsu admitted, it wasn't too hard to bribe Gildarts if you knew what he liked.

"Geez, it took that much to get him to give ya my number?" he asked, amusement in his voice "Has his prices gone up that much since I've been gone?"

"It's has been three years Gajeel" Natsu said as he leaned back in his chair.

"So I take it ya didn't just miss yer best friend" Gajeel said "So what do ya want?"

"I want to meet up with you to discuss some stuff" Natsu said.

"Wow, ya got to the point for once" Gajeel said, surprise in his voice "It must be important."

"It is, I don't want to tell you exactly what I need to talk to you about on the phone, where can we meet up?" Natsu asked.

"I guess we can meet up down at the docks, warehouse seven" Gajeel said as Natsu wrote it done.

"Okay then, see you in few" Natsu said as Gajeel gave a gruff noise of agreement before he hung up. Looked like he was going down to where one of the murders had taken place, maybe he should even use this as an opportunity to look around for anything, not that there'd be anything left behind most likely.

So Natsu headed out towards the docks, as it was so lovingly dubbed; in reality it was actually known as Hargeon Port, to meet up with Gajeel Redfox. Gajeel was a cop who, for the past three years, had been working undercover in the crime gang Phantom Lord which was actually another one of the Spriggan 12's many branches.

They were nothing too big, but over the past few years it had been gaining ground in Magnolia, causing the police to take some kind of action. But even when it seemed they had the leader, Jose, in custody for good he would somehow be bailed out either by politicians saying he was their financial manager or by a police officer who would normally spout out some code that would magically get him out of trouble.

So they had decided the best way to take it down was by sending in someone who could infiltrate the operation successfully and get close enough to Jose to gain his trust before gathering enough evidence to take him down. Gajeel had been the one chosen for the job for many reasons, as Gildarts had put it; Natsu sometimes wondered if it was because he already looked the part well enough.

"Speaking of the devil" Natsu thought as he walked towards warehouse seven, seeing a very pissed off man standing beside it.

"Dragneel" Gajeel practically growled when he saw the other man "What the hell did ya drag me out here for?"

"Well Redfox, like I told you over the phone, I need to discuss some sensitive material with you" Natsu said as he leaned against the wall of the warehouse, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"I know, but still, ya obviously look like ya with the FED's, decked out in that suit" Gajeel said with a huff as he followed Natsu in suit, leaning up against the wall "Ya know it was already risky enough for me to meet with ya, one slip up and I'm done. Everythin' I've worked so hard for these past three years are thrown out the window."

"I know Gajeel" Natsu said "But what I need to talk to you about is important."

"Even more important than taking down some gang thinkin' it's all high and mighty?" Gajeel asked, sarcasm already edging its way into his voice.

"Considering I'm here looking for information on a gang myself, I think we're about equal" Natsu said.

Gajeel was quiet for a minute after that but he soon asked "What gang are ya dealing with? Hopefully not Phantom Lord, I'm almost ready to begin my final stage in my infiltration and I don't need some federal agent coming in and messin' it all up."

"It's not about Phantom Lord, but it is about one of the Spriggan 12's branches" Natsu said "So you don't need to worry about me messing up that nice little promotion you'll be getting when you complete this."

"Hey I need that to take my girl out, three years of only talking on the phone and meetin' for about five minutes once a year, she deserves somethin' nice after not just breaking up with my ass" Gajeel said, his usual gruffness fading when he talked about "his girl."

Natsu had never met this said girl, nor could he remember what her name was. All he knew that she managed to keep Gajeel straight so he figured she must be some sort miracle worker or a very scary ex-military officer. "Uh huh" Natsu said "Anyway, the gang I'm dealing with his Tartaros."

Gajeel whistled. "Ya got yourself a real big one there" he said "They're pretty tough based on everything I've been told. I tell ya what; Jose is scared out of his mind of those guys even scared of their minor thugs. Won't let us get start fights with them, let alone get near 'em."

"So you'd say that they're pretty strong then?" Natsu asked.

"I guess" Gajeel said with a shrug "I mean they are pretty high up there in the whole system. Phantom Lord is considered one of the weakest so Jose is trying to make sure that we act on our best behavior, or at least as good as we can be as gang members, so we stay in Zeref's good graces."

"Pretty hard to get into those I guess" Natsu said under his breathe.

"And once you're in it's pretty hard to get out, huh?" Gajeel asked, glancing over at Natsu he waited for his response.

"I thought we promised our dads that we wouldn't act so childish to each other" Natsu said, putting on his best fake smile.

"I'm just sayin' that if anyone had the upper hand in these cases it be ya" Gajeel said with a sigh "Ya probably know more about all these gangs than anyone you ask."

"I don't know what you mean" Natsu said, glaring at him to change the topic back to the matter at hand.

"Fine" Gajeel said, rolling his eyes "Ya can't pretend forever, eventually it'll all catch up to ya."

"I'm beginning to think having two people know about my past might be two, too many" Natsu grumbled before asking Gajeel "So do you know anything about Tartarus?"

"Well yeah" Gajeel said with a shrug "I know about the same amount of stuff about them as any outsider to the gang has."

"So does that mean you know nothing?" Natsu asked, he hoped that this was just Gajeel being Gajeel but….

"Well I know as much as any gang member would know about them" Gajeel said, clarifying what he had said earlier "I forget sometimes that I'm not actually talking to another member."

"I see" Natsu said "I hope you don't forget that you're a cop too, it might end badly if you end up becoming an actual gang member."

"Ha ha ha" Gajeel said, his tone deflating with each laugh "Wouldn't that be a news story."

"I can see the headline now" Natsu said as he stuck his hand out, emphasizing each word "Local Police Officer Forgets His Job While He Is Undercover; Becomes Part of a Local Gang."

"Didn't ya have something important and urgent to talk to me about?" Gajeel asked "I don't have all day."

"I see you can dish it but not take it" Natsu said as Gajeel punched him in the arm, probably not jokingly.

"Anyway, Tartaros" Gajeel said changing the topic back to the original one "So besides the fact that Phantom Lord has been pretty much trained to be scared shitless of them, there's a lot. They're pretty vicious, once when I was walking the streets one of 'em tried to start with me. Just walked up to me and got in my face, asking me why I was giving him a funny look. He didn't like it when I told him it was because his oddly shaped head was distracting me."

"Listen" Natsu said as he shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose "I didn't meet up with you to hear about the many interesting stories I'm sure you've accumulated these past three years."

"Okay fine spoil sport" Gajeel huffed "I do know they've been losin' a lot of members recently. Jose keeps talkin' about it and how if this keeps up we may have the chance to rise up in the rank" Gajeel rolled his eyes at this before continuing "Word on the street is that they're in the middle of a war."

"With who?" Natsu asked, though he had a good idea he knew the answer.

Gajeel shrugged "Not too sure, lots of rumors of who it may be though. Some say it's another Spriggan 12 gang, some say it's a gang that isn't from around here and some say it's the gang itself that's waging a war against itself. But I really don't know shit about what the truth is."

"I'm pretty sure it's a war inside the gang" Natsu said as he tapped his foot. He wasn't getting too much from Gajeel at the moment but he figured with a little more waiting he would get something.

"Really?" Gajeel asked as he raised his brow "How do ya know?"

"The only dead gang members I've been finding in the past six months are Tartaros" Natsu said.

"Well" Gajeel said "That ain't good at all now is it. A gang waging a war against itself, there is no way this could end well."

"Trust me" Natsu said "I have my worries too."

"Anyway" Gajeel said "There leader goes by the name Marde in the circles he messes with, not many people know his name though. Before you ask, no I don't know his real name. All I know is that he is one egocentric bastard who is obsessed with Zeref and follows any orders he is given. He's like a well-trained dog, and let me tell you Tartaros' bite is much worse than their bark."

"So I shouldn't take them lightly" Natsu said "I kinda figured that from the beginning."

"They're a lot worse than ya think, hell a normal drug ring is like a church compared Tartaros" Gajeel said "I don't know much else about them but I do know about one of their members. The guy is like Marde's right hand man, goes by the name Jackal. He had a bad temper from what I hear and an even worse fashion sense."

"Good to know" Natsu mumbled.

"Listen, knowin' if someone wears fur coats all the time should really effect how ya see them" Gajeel said "Anyway, ya should be careful and before ya can tell me how everyone else has been tellin' ya that, just know that I've learned how these guys can act. I don't want to read in the paper about how an FBI agent died while pursuing a drug ring. That's not how ya should go."

"How should I go than?" Natsu asked, amusement creeping its way back into his voice.

"In a blaze of fire and glory" Gajeel said with a chuckle.

"Is this your way of saying I should have been a firefighter?" Natsu asked.

"Maybe, I always saw ya as the type. You're a bit of a pyromaniac, I think ya set all ya food on fire on purpose" Gajeel said as he uncrossed his arms and stuck his hand in one of his pockets.

"I'm just accident prone" Natsu said as he watched Gajeel pull a pack of cigarettes out from his pocket "Please tell me you haven't started using those cancer sticks."

"Sorry man" Gajeel said as he took one out of the crinkled package "I only smoke like two a day."

"What packs?"

"Listen" Gajeel said as he put it between his lips "When my girlfriend finds out she's going to make sure I quit so until than I will smoke the cancer sticks I have become addicted to."

"Fine" Natsu said with a huff "But this means you'll probably be going due to lung cancer."

"Say all ya want" Gajeel said as he pulled out a lighter "But I'm sure you've made worse choices."

"I…won't argue there" Natsu said "Anyway, I'm going to head back. Try not to get yourself killed, alright?"

"No promises" Gajeel said "But I'll try my damnest to stay alive."

"Good to know" Natsu said before he turned around and headed back to the car. He had been looking around the docks and from what he could tell; there was too much fish blood on the docks to actually tell if any was human. So he headed back without even bothering to look for anything, plus it was getting late and he didn't want to be caught at the docks past dusk. His new goal is to figure out who these two members were, and where he can find them, so his best bet was heading back to base.


	7. Catagelophobia (Fear of Being Ridiculed)

Natsu wasn't exactly sure how to start his search for Marde and Jackal but he figured the best way to go about it was the internet. As he stared at the screen he wondered what exactly he should even be searching for. His top priority was finding out who the leader was, who Marde really was.

He figured that since Marde didn't let many people know his name that maybe his fake name was a hint to his real name. Like a middle name or initials or something. He hesitated before he began typing, but when he did he typed in Marde as well as Magnolia in hopes that maybe it would match up with someone in the town. But he couldn't shake the feeling that he had heard that name before and that he should know it.

Marde brought up two hits. One was a man named Jeffery Marde who had been dead for about twenty years, and another man named Marde Geer who was currently very much alive. Natsu wasn't sure that this could actually be the person they were looking for; maybe this person was a relative of the first guy. But after looking through family records he found the man had no surviving family members.

There was no way though that a leader of a drug ring would use his real name while running it. Gajeel had said he was egocentric but that didn't mean he would be arrogant enough to believe that he could use his real name without being caught.

Natsu still pulled up the file on Marde Geer only to feel his stomach drop. Now it was looking a bit more likely that if this was the man he was looking for, he could easily use his name without getting caught. Marde Geer was a local politician, and not some random one who people only voted for because they could remember his name. He was running for mayor, practically unopposed with large amounts of public support.

He clicked over to another tab and typed in the man's name and began to look at the first few sites that had popped up. He had about three blogs that were mainly dedicated to him, apparently the community loved him. A woman on one talked about how thanks to local legislation that Marde not only drafted but made sure passed, saved her daughter's life. How Marde did this he still wasn't sure, but every post on her blog thanked Marde for every day she had with her daughter.

Another just talked about how he was apparently a stellar politician who would save them all from the horrible depths of the money driven democracy and talked about him like he was the next messiah or something. The final one was filled of pictures of Marde doing charitable work, Marde helping build homes, Madre volunteering at a local shelter, many of him serving food to the homeless and him visiting hospitals.

Natsu also manages to learn that Marde had been in office for about ten years and donated most of his money to local charities. Apparently he didn't have any close family and he claimed it was so he could devote all his time to the people. Honestly he seemed like he was a picture perfect figure of society which for some reason made Natsu even more suspicious of the man. He wasn't going to jump to conclusions but he was planning on looking into Marde a little more; maybe even call him in for an interview about the numerous gangs that plagued Magnolia.

He decided to set aside the search for Marde and instead turn towards how he should find Jackal. He knew he couldn't just type that in online, he would just find himself learning about a wild dog. There was a chance though that he would find himself a lead on the database though. Criminals were sometimes given nicknames, and maybe this was just a guy who decided that the best way to stick their middle finger up to the law was to go by the nickname they had given him.

So Natsu switched his search from good ol' google to the FBI database. Typing in Jackal he waited anxiously for any kind of results, anything that might help him out and for once the world decided to listen to his request.

Up popped a report about a bomber that had terrified the city of Magnolia for a good six months. In those six months he had set off approximately seven homemade bombs in various public places. Even after he had disappeared citizens had still been hesitant that he would pop up, or blow up, again. The key word in the entire file was the word disappears. One day the attacks suddenly stopped. The signature letters that had been arriving at the police station, telling the police where he was going to set off his next bomb and always including a stamp that had a jackal on it, stopped coming.

He had just disappeared off the face of the earth as quickly as he had shown off, and as if icing on a cake, he had been dubbed Jackal.

It could be only a coincidence; maybe this guy just really appreciated jackals or something. But that was no reason for Natsu to not believe that he might have a connection. While it wouldn't help much since there was no name for this man there had been suspects which could be helpful and probably a good start for locating Jackal.

He mentally reminded himself to call Gildarts about it later, according to the file he had been on the police unit that had worked with the FBI on the case. He'd also have to get permission to get the full file, every piece of information and everyone that had been a suspect. It was a start but Natsu had found possible leads for both of them.

Running his fingers through his hair, he decided that he should maybe skip corralling Lucy into eating out with him tonight. He really needed some sleep and when he ate with Lucy he ended up talking with her more than he had planned. He had trouble keeping track of time when he was with her; she was easy to talk to, he felt strangely comfortable around her. This kind of scared him though, to feel that kind of closeness with someone after knowing them for less than a week. He figured it was best not to get attached to someone he would only spend time with for the span of one case, it was hard enough for him to keep up relationships with his coworkers, he didn't want to think of how hard it would be with someone he didn't work with.

Taking his phone out from his pocket he considered calling Lucy to talk to her about what he had found or if he should go down to the lab. He had actually gotten more comfortable being there since the first time; he wasn't as stiff there and didn't look down at his phone to avoid conversation with people who were not Lucy. He still didn't talk to anyone, except maybe Levy but normally he only nodded at her in greeting, but he at least knew his way around the place.

He figured he could pop in and see how Lucy and the bones were doing when his phone began to ring. He looked at the number and saw it was an unknown number. His finger hesitated over the answer button but he finally accepted the call. Putting the phone next to his ear he answered "Hello."

"Hello Natsu, it's Jellal" Jellal said, the background noise muffling his voice.

"Jellal" Natsu said, genuinely surprised that he was actually the one calling him "What are you calling for?"

"I found some more information on Tartaros for you" Jellal said as Natsu swore he heard what sounded like breaking glass in the background.

"Really, thanks man" Natsu said.

"I overheard it from someone who's a part of it actually" Jellal said "And all I can say is that Tartaros is in bad shape right now."

"So they are in a war right now?" Natsu asked, leaning back in his chair.

"Yep and just like you thought it's against each other" Jellal said, an audible sigh coming from him "It never ends well when a gang fights amongst itself."

"Do you know why this is going on?" Natsu asked.

"Yeah I unfortunately do, it's for control over the gang. According to the member I talked to it's between their leader and the guy's right hand man. Apparently they go by the names Marde and Jackal. The Jackal guy is trying to overthrow Marde, their current leader. Jackal has claimed that if Marde gets elected he won't be fit to run the gang" Jellal said and one word caught Natsu's attention.

"Elected?" Natsu asked "For what?"

"I don't know and neither does the guy I talked to" Jellal said.

"Well I guess I'll have to look at people who are running for an office of some sort" Natsu said with an awkward laugh. This helped his theory that Marde was Marde Geer, but at the same time it re-enforced it which means this would lead to one hell of a chase for Natsu. He couldn't just arrest the man running for mayor for a crime that no one would believe he committed. It was going to take a lot of evidence and some digging to even be able to arrest the guy, and the only way to get him convicted would have to be a confession for the public to even accept the arrest.

"I suppose so, but if it's true that this guy is running for some sort of political position, you'll have a tough time pinning him as a leader of a drug ring" Jellal said.

"So what else can you tell me about this war that is going on?" Natsu asked pulling over a pad of sticky notes towards him; he needed to write this all down if he wanted to remember it.

"Well I know the gang is taking sides, right now you're either with Marde or Jackal. If you don't take a side you're either going to end up dead or being forced onto a side. It's a pretty big thing, some are saying that it's practically mutiny for Jackal to tell Marde to step down if he gets this position and there are those who say that Marde needs to step down, that he's ruled for long enough and he has caused enough trouble for Tartaros" Jellal said, pausing to see if Natsu was going to ask anything.

"What kind of trouble are they accusing him off?" Natsu asked picking up a pen, clicking it open he waited to hear anything interesting

"They're blaming him for all the problems they've been having recently, like all the drug busts and spies. They say he's losing his touch and if he can't keep them safe than he shouldn't run them, so I guess this is when Jackal stepped in and said he would be glad to take over Marde's position" Jellal said as Natsu clicked the pen again.

"So this is a power struggle than?" Natsu asked.

"I suppose so; it's more like a coup than anything" Jellal said "But there are some pretty dominant people showing up for this war though."

"What kind of people?" Natsu asked, clicking his pen again as he hovered it above paper, ready to write down whatever he heard.

"They're the ones that you hear on the news" Jellal said. "Whenever Tartaros claims an attack as theirs, it's normally these guys that had some hand in it."

"So it's the top members besides Marde and Jackal" Natsu said.

"Yep, there's about seven of them, each of them siding with either Jackal or Marde" Jellal said.

"So in a way they're helping make sure this war continues" Natsu said. "You'd think they'd try to stop it."

"Apparently some of them agreed with Jackal that Marde needed to step down" Jellal said. "So who do you want me to start with, I figure you want to write this all down."

"Doesn't really matter to me" Natsu said. "I'll take anything."

"Well I guess I'll start off with the one who worries me the most. Her name is Kyoka and she is one scary lady apparently. The guy I talked to told me a lot of people changed sides once Kyoka picked who she was siding with" Jellal said.

"Which was?" Natsu asked as he wrote down the name.

"Marde, kind of surprising but I guess it did help Marde out if one of their strongest members chose to stay by his side. Apparently she is known for torture, it's her signature, if any of the members died to something that seems torture related than it was probably her who did. She is one people you'd want to try and stay away from" Jellal said.

"That's going to be kind of hard" Natsu muttered as he wrote down Marde and torture next to her name.

"Another person that you should try to be wary of is another woman named Seilah. She isn't known too much for fighting but she does make others do the work for her. Seilah can hypnotize people apparently and once she has them under her spell she can make them do about anything for her. So the best thing I can say is keep your eyes off her if you ever end up meeting her. The guy I talked to said she uses some old methods but they all work. She's on Marde' side as well" Jellal said pausing, giving Natsu some time to finish writing.

Underneath Kyoka he wrote done Seilah before writing Marde and mind control next to it. "So Marde has some pretty scary people siding with him. You'd think this would end with people being too scared to fight him."

"While Marde has some tough people on his side, he doesn't have as much support in numbers as Jackal does, that's why no one had backed down yet" Jellal clarified. "There's one well known hit man in the underground that's sided with Marde, their name is Tempester. There's not much to tell for this guy, just know that he completes every job he is given without a hitch."

"Okay" Natsu said as he finished writing down Tempester. "So far I have to worry about a torturer, a mind controller and a hit man. This is starting to sound like so much fun."

"That's not even half of the people I'm going to tell you about" Jellal said, ignoring the sarcasm in Natsu's voice. "The next guy is siding with Jackal, his name is Keyes. This guy is some underground doctor with a few screws loose."

"Define a few screws loose" Natsu asked as he wrote down the guy's name.

"He likes to dismember his patients and experiment on them; he also has a bit of an obsession with corpses. If there's ever a repost on grave robbing, it was probably him who is responsible" Jellal said. "You don't need to worry about him unless he has you strapped down to his operation table."

"Dully noted" Natsu said as he finished writing down notes for Keyes.

"The next two are partners; their names are Ezel and Torafuzar. They're a pair of hitmen, not much to say about them really. By themselves they aren't much but when they're together, well that's a whole 'nother story. So I'd suggest that if you'd go after them to do so separately. They both sided with Jackal so it's not like they were divided by war. They're still trouble" Jellal said before continuing. "The final person I'm going to tell you about is Franmalth."

"Let me guess, another hitman or something?" Natsu asked as he rolled the pen between his fingers. He was beginning to think he might leave some of this extra information out of the report he'd be sending Makarov tonight, this would be enough to convince Makarov that Natsu should be taken off the case. But if anyone else was put on the case would they really think to go after Marde, would they even be brave enough to face a politician or would they choose to just ignore those facts? Natsu didn't want to find this out so the best bet was making sure he would stay on the case.

"Nope, Franmalth is the ring's spy and informant. He's apparently really good at his job" Jellal added.

"Do you think you have some competition Jellal?" Natsu asked, humor creeping into his voice.

"How could I have competition when I work with the FBI, that's practically ever informant's dream, it pays the best" Jellal said with a laugh.

"Considering you almost never accept any money I don't know how much that claim of yours sticks" Natsu said. "Or is this your way of asking for money?"

"Oh no, this information is free of charge" Jellal said. "I only take money from those I don't trust."

"That seems like a bad idea Jellal" Natsu said with a sigh. "Do you want me to tell Erza you said hello again?"

"No it's fine" Jellal said "She was downtown the other day after I talked to you."

"I told you didn't I?" Natsu said. "She's going to hunt you down when she finds out you're in town."

"I know but still…" Jellal said guilt heavy in his voice.

"Don't beat yourself up" Natsu said. "Just try to find some way to meet up with her so she at least knows you're alive and well."

"Maybe" Jellal said before changing the subject. "That's all I have to tell you, so until next time Natsu."

"Okay Jellal" Natsu said. "Make sure not to get yourself arrested." Jellal didn't respond and soon the tone dial was ringing in his ear. Closing his phone he looked down at what he had wrote down. It wasn't much but it was a start to taking down the main parts of Tartars, once their strongest members were gone there wasn't much for them to do besides dissolve their group, hopefully.

Natsu was about ready to just leave and call it a night when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning his head he was greeted by Lucy's smiling face.

"I have some news" she said. "It might not be good news, but it's still news."

"Oh, well pull over a chair and tell me about it" Natsu as he pointed over at Gray's chair. "I don't know how you do it, being around dead bodies all day I mean."

Lucy shrugged as she rolled over a chair by Natsu. "I'm used to it, it's my job and I don't think too much of it" she said as she sat down in the chair, folding her legs and clasping her hand together she continued. "Anyway the three bodies I have at the lab have all died differently, and based on all of the reports I looked at it's the same for the other bodies."

Natsu nodded his head as he added "I was able to find out that there is a full out war going on inside the gang, it explains why there is so many of dead Tartaros members showing up but none from any other group."

"Really?" Lucy asked. "How did you find that out?"

"I talked with one of my old friends and before you ask he is not shady, well he is a little shady but still, he's a police officer so he knows this kind of stuff" Natsu said before Lucy could ask if he met up with some underground informant or paid a member of Tartaros to tell him everything they knew. She needed to lay off the cop shows for sure.

"Oh, okay, that's a start for sure" Lucy said as she rested her head in her hand. "If only you knew something about the people who are part of Tartaros."

"Well" Natsu said as Lucy glanced up at him "I kind of have."

"Really?" Lucy asked her head leaving her hand. "That's great! What did you find out?"

"I have a lead on who their leader might" Natsu said, biting his lip as he wondered whether or not he should tell Lucy what else he had found out. Maybe he could just tell her tomorrow, they both needed to get some sleep. If he was only getting about five hours of sleep, she couldn't be getting much more.

"Who do you think it might be, a corrupted cop, or is it some tough criminal that's been in and out of jail?" Lucy asked bouncing in her seat.

"Not exactly" Natsu said "The guy goes by the name Marde."

"Marde?" Lucy asked as her brow knitted together.

"Apparently this whole war thing started because Marde is running for some sort of public office and one the members claimed he wasn't fit to run them if he got elected in" Natsu said as he waited for Lucy's response.

"So the leader of the drug ring Tartaros might just be Marde Greer?!" Lucy exclaimed, jumping up from the chair. "The same guy running for mayor?"

"It's just a theory" Natsu said, standing up as well and placing his hands on her shoulders. "But even if it turns out to be true it's going to be hard for me to pin him down for this. Apparently the public likes him which makes it even harder since he's a politician. I don't know how I'm going to get anything to stick to him."

Lucy was quiet for a few seconds, just staring at Natsu which in turn made him panic for a few second because did he have something on his face or something. "I think I might know someone who could help us pin down Marde" Lucy said breaking the silence.

"Really?" Natsu asked feeling like this was too good to be true "Who?"

"I know someone who works at city hall" Lucy said avoiding his eyes, she was hiding something. "I'll talk to them tonight and ask them about Marde."

"That would be great Heartfilia" Natsu said not pressing any further, it's not like he hasn't hid who his sources were to her, she had every right to do the same. "So are you heading home?"

"Oh um yeah I guess" Lucy said fiddling with her hands "I just figured you'd want to eat out or something, it's silly really but since we've done it every night I guess I just adjusted my schedule to it…."

"Do you want to eat out somewhere?" Natsu asked, cocking his head, did she actually want to…hang out with him or something. He didn't know if adults hanged out or if it was just for teenagers or something, what would it be called for adults meeting up?

"I don't want to feel pushy or anything I'm fine, we don't need to-" Lucy said before Natsu patted her on the shoulder.

"No need to hide it Heartfilia" Natsu said as a smile fell across his face.

"Hide what?" Lucy asked feeling a bit nervous with what he would say.

"That you enjoy my company" Natsu said as his smile turned into a smirk.

"What-how-wha" Lucy said as she sputtered for the right words before managing to get out ."Don't let your ego get too big agent."

Natsu just laughed as he said "It's fine, I think I'm starting to get used to being around you. Who knows, maybe we won't just get a boost in our jobs with this case, maybe we'll even become friends because of it."

"Oh be quiet Natsu" Lucy said as she rolled her eyes. "Drop the sarcasm."

"What?" Natsu teased. "You don't think we'll end up being best friends after all of this?"

"This isn't a movie" Lucy said as she headed towards the elevator.

"Or one of your many crime shows" Natsu added, earning him a glare from Lucy.

"I don't know why I even bothered to offer you company" Lucy said with a huff.

"Oh don't get yourself so worked up" Natsu said "Come on lets go get some pie, best way to forget about the stress of work."

"I need it" Lucy said with a sigh as she ran her fingers through her hair.

"Don't worry" Natsu said as he pressed the button to go down "I'm sure this case won't last too much longer, than you can go back to looking at your mummies."


	8. Anablephobia (Fear of Looking Up)

Lucy let out a loud sigh as she closed her apartment door behind her. Pressing her back up against the door she slid down until she was sitting on the floor. As much as she was enjoying her work this week, it was a lot more tiring than what she was used to.

Ever since the beginning of the case she had been getting home close to nine every night, compared to the time she would normally get home, six, she was spending a lot more time at work than usual. But it what was needed to help out with the case. She knew she must have looked over the bones about ten times, top to bottom; skull to phalanges. She had found about everything she could about the bones, and while she did find something new almost every time, these observations weren't much help. She didn't think knowing that one victim played soccer when they were younger or that one broke their arm in the same place twice when they were an adolescent.

Sighing again she wondered whether she should get up or just fall asleep there, running on coffee wasn't working too well for her. Shrugging off her bag, Lucy slumped to the ground and pressed her face to the cool tile of her kitchen floor. Really, how did she expect to do this for a living when she seemed to be barely handling once case?

Scrunching her face up she pushed those thoughts out of her mind. She could do this, she was just tired from working overtime to find out how she could connect these bodies all together and find everything she could to help Natsu. Levy had offered to help her but besides helping her with fleshy bodies; she normally declined the offer for help.

Why? Maybe it was because she was just too stubborn and wanted to prove to others, but mainly to herself, that she could do this. Maybe she thought this was what he mother would. Maybe it was a mixture of both. Though Natsu didn't seem to be doing any better, working on this huge case by himself. She couldn't help but feel that this might end up falling down all around him, but she would do her best to help him out. Which reminded her of what she had promised him earlier.

Lifting her head off the floor she looked over at her bag, hesitating to reach out and grab it. The person that she knew who worked at city was none other than her father. She was hesitant to call her father herself; it would break the whole system that had been created. It would mean that he would expect her to call him as well, wouldn't it?

She had promised Natsu that she would call him tonight; while she could always lie and say she hadn't been able to get through to them it just didn't sit right with her for some reason. Grabbing her bag she rummaged around until she found her phone at the bottom.

She hesitated a few seconds before finally shoving aside all of her speculations and calling him. It took only two rings before he picked up.

"Lucy" Jude answered, something almost like surprise in his voice, he also didn't seem to believe that his daughter was calling him; he seemed to be at a loss for words. "We just talked yesterday."

"Yes father, we did, do you have a problem with that?" Lucy asked, immediately switching to the defensive.

"No, no, no, of course not" Jude said hurriedly. "I'm just surprised that's all, pleasantly surprised."

"Father, I'm calling to ask you a few questions about a colleague of yours, Marde Geer" Lucy said as she thought about maybe getting up off the floor, while it was comfortable a bed did seemed much more enticing.

"Marde Geer" Jude said as if he was hearing the name for the first time. "He is a member of the city's general assembly. I've talked to him a few times; he seems like a nice guy. What do you want to know about him?"

Now that was a question she should be asking herself, what exactly did Natsu want to know about him. "It's not that I have questions about him per say" Lucy said as she wracked her brain for something to ask.

"What do you want with Marde Geer?" Jude asked, not seeming to notice the panic showing in Lucy's voice as she scrambled to come up with questions, why hadn't she asked Natsu what he had wanted to know about Marde?

"Well it's more what does my part-the FBI agent I'm working with wants with him" Lucy said, catching herself on the word partner, could they even be called partners? "The guy I works with thinks that Marde might have…something to do with what we're investigating."

"Really?" Jude asked, emotion coming into his voice for the first time during their phone calls. "He thinks Marde might be mixed up with something?"

"He has a pretty solid theory" Lucy said as she finally got up off the floor, reaching down she grabbed her bag. "He just needs some more evidence to connect Marde to the crime. I figured since you work at city hall with him you could help."

Jude was silent for a few seconds before answering "I'll help you out anyway I can. While the public might like Marde, most of us at city hall hope he doesn't get voted in as mayor."

"Why do all hate him so much?" Lucy asked, glad she had been able to finally ask a question that might help them out. Taking out a piece of paper and pen from her bag she got ready to write.

"He just seems-" Jude said before pausing for a second. "Slimy?"

"What?" Lucy asked.

"He just seems kind of off, too good to be true sort of deal" Jude said. "Like he's hiding something."

"I see" Lucy said as she wrote it down, it was good to know she might be able to get some help at city hall if a majority of them didn't like Marde. "Do you know anything else about him that might be useful?"

"Sorry Lucy, I don't him well enough and neither does anyone else around here. He keeps to himself mostly, holed up in his office when he's not off helping the public or whatever it is he calls it" Jude said. "I'm still at work though, maybe I could go look in his office to see if he's in."

"You're still at work?" Lucy asked though she figured she shouldn't be surprised, he had always been a workaholic even when her mother was alive.

"I had something I needed to finish" Jude said half-heartedly.

"Sure" Lucy said as she rolled her eyes, she should tell him he needed to get a hobby like golf or bingo or something. "Don't stay too much longer though, I know you probably were in there by seven, you've already gone into overtime by now."

"You sound just like your mother" Jude said and for the first time in a long time he sounded….amused rather than his usual monotone attempt at humor.

"Thanks for doing this father" Lucy said as she shoved her pen and paper back into her bag. "It was helpful."

"No problem Lucy" Jude said "Good bye, talk to you later."

"Good bye" Lucy said before ending the call. Dragging herself to her bedroom she threw her bag down in the corner before considering putting on something else to sleep in. Shrugging off the idea she collapsed onto her bed before falling asleep in seconds. Later she wished she had told her father to forget about talking to Marde and to just go home.

/

Natsu is hunched over his laptop as he searched the internet for anything about Marde, other than anything that just talks about how great Marde is. He wasn't getting much luck; each website just said the same thing over and over again as though they just copy and pasted it of one resource. Which one was the original was not something Natsu knew nor did he really care to figure it out.

What Natsu did know was that Happy was not happy (no pun intended) since he had been practically abandoned by his owner for what had felt like forever and even though Natsu was back, he was still being ignored.

"Happy I'm sorry" Natsu said as Happy proceeded to flop down onto his keyboard and stare at him as if threatening Natsu to push him off. "But I have something important I need to do and I can't do it with your butt on my computer."

Happy just flicked his tail impassively as he continued to stare at Natsu, hitting the space bar repeatedly. Natsu swore his cat was smarter than what any cat should be.

"Listen you can sleep on my face for all I care tonight and suffocate me if you just let me do this" Natsu begged feeling like this was something a kid would do with their parents.

Happy flicked his tail again before standing up and leaping off the computer, but not before he stretched on it as if it was on last fuck you.

Sighing Natsu continued to scan the search results for anything helpful but finding nothing. He was finally considering just giving up and getting some sleep when his phone went off. Taking out of his pocket he looked at the screen to see it was Gajeel, which actually surprised him that Gajeel would actually call him unless maybe he was dying and they were holding him at cannon point to call him.

"Hey Gajeel" Natsu said half wondering if one of the other gang members had stolen his phone and had called Natsu because it had the worst name.

"Natsu, I have some info for ya." Natsu almost fell out of his chair when he heard Gajeel's gruff voice.

"Really?" Natsu asked. "Are you being forced to call me or something?"

"No" Gajeel answered, annoyance coming to his voice and all was normal again. "I'm doing ya a favor, so ya should count yer blessings that I'm in a good mood."

"Okay than" Natsu said "So what did you learn then?"

"I found out a little tidbit 'bout Jackal, apparently the guy is Tartaros' demolition expert. Pretty much this guy blows things up" Gajeel said.

"So he makes bombs and shit than?" Natsu asked getting excited slightly, if this was true than there was even more of a reason to connect Jackal of Tartaros to Jackal from the bombings a few years back.

"Yeah I guess" Gajeel said. "That's all I learned but I figured it would help ya."

"Thanks Gajeel" Natsu said as he closed his computer. "This has been helpful."

"Don't get killed, 'kay" Gajeel said before hanging up.

Natsu fell back against his chair as it all sank in. There was a good chance he had a connection to who Jackal was. He'd need to ask Gildarts for the file tomorrow but until then maybe he should slow down on the research and get some sleep.

Getting up from off the couch he heard Happy meow at him, apparently angry that Natsu had decided only a few minutes later that he didn't want to pay attention to the computer. Once he reached his room he collapsed onto his bed. Happy followed after him and landed on his back.

Natsu figured he could just fall asleep like that until Happy decided his back wasn't just comfortable enough and decided to scratch his back like he was a new scratching post.

"Happy come on" Natsu grumbled as he grabbed the cat by the scruff of his neck and pulled him off his back.

Looking at Happy he swore the cat looked like he was quite proud of himself. "I know you want to exact revenge, but could you save for another time." Rolling onto his back he sat up and began to unbutton his shirt. Grabbing the remote he turned on his tiny, static TV that he got for a deal at some lady's yard sale. He clicked until the news was on and began to get ready to go to sleep, which pretty much just meant taking off all of his clothes.

Sliding his tie off he half listened to the news, not bothering to really listen until he heard the announcement of "Breaking News!"

Glancing over at the TV he saw something that unsettled him to the bones, not enough to shake him but enough to scare him slightly. The screen was showing footage of town hall on fire, or well smoking on one side.

A reporter appeared on the screen as she told the public, in a surprising neutral tone, what was going on. "Town Hall has just experienced something we haven't heard about locally in years, a bombing. At exactly ten o' one pm the building shook as a large hole was blown out the side of it. Flames consumed the side of the building, but thanks to our amazing firefighters the blaze has been contained. Police don't know yet what exactly the motive of this bombing is but they say they plan to talk with the FBI about what the possible theories may be."

Natsu was already out the door by the time she was saying "Now back to Tom with the weather."

When he reaches city hall he feels like he can let out a small sigh of relief. There was little damage to the building, but whether or not anyone was hurt was a different story.

As he was looking around for Gildarts he saw someone in the crowd that he didn't expect to see. Among the crowd of spectators straining to get a look of the damage was Lucy Heartfilia. From what he could tell she was still in the clothes she had been wearing that day, just more wrinkled, and she had a look of panic plastered across her face, trying to look over the crowd while she bit on one of her knuckles.

"Heartfilia" Natsu called out as he jogged over to her.

She turned to him and for a few seconds some sort of relief was in her eyes before it turned back into panic. "Natsu" she said. "What are you doing here?"

He figured he should be asking her the same thing but he decided to wait for her to tell him considering how pale her face had become in the past few seconds of him watching her. "I saw it on the news and, well, I have a reason to believe that Jackal might have done this."

"J-Jackal?" Lucy asked her voice shaking slightly. "You think he set off this bomb." She was beginning to shake now.

"Um yeah, if Marde Geer is really Tartaros' leader than it would make sense if he attacked his place of work since I found out that Jackal is the explosion expert of the gang" Natsu said, worrying that Lucy might pass out right then and there. "Hey Heartfilia, are you okay? Do you need to sit down or something?"

"No, no" Lucy said shaking her head as she turned her attention back towards the building. "I need to find someone first."

"Who do you need to find?" Natsu asked, placing his hand on her shoulder only for her to flinch at the contact. Drawing his hand back he asked "I can take you past that little barricade and get you to the EMTs or a police officer."

"Th-that would be nice" Lucy said not even taking her attention away from the all the lights and smoke of the scene.

Natsu walked over to one of the officers keeping the crowd back with Lucy in tow. He showed his badge, glad he hadn't taken his work pants off, and pointed at Lucy as he said "She's with me." The guy nodded and let the two of them pass.

Since Natsu didn't even know who they were looking for he figured he should just follow Lucy until she found who she was looking for. "Not that it's any of my business" Natsu said, drawing Lucy's attention to him voluntarily. "But I take it you're looking for whoever you know that works at city hall?"

Lucy turned her attention back to searching for whoever it was she was looking for and Natsu figured she wasn't going to answer him. "Yeah."

"What?" Natsu asked, not catching what Lucy had mumbled.

"Yeah, I'm looking for the person I know from city hall" Lucy said as she continued to stare straight ahead with her back to him.

"Okay" Natsu said with a nod as he began to look around for any sign of Gildarts.

"I-It's just that I'm worried that-well now even more worried since you think Jackal is behind this" Lucy said as she began to ramble, twisting her fingers as she scanned around the ambulances and the few people who weren't harmed in the blast.

"Heartfilia, take some deep breaths" Natsu said, looking at her back. "Count to ten, you don't need to tell me anything you don't feel comfortable with."

Lucy became quiet other than her heavy breathing she was silent. Natsu figured she had just went back to looking for whoever it was she was worried about when she broke the silence.

"My father."

"What?" Natsu asked, barely catching what she had said.

"It's my father who I'm worried about" Lucy said.

So that was who she knew at city hall. "How can you be so sure he was here when the bomb went off?"

"I talked to him when I got home and he told me he was still at his office. I talked to him about Marde and-" Lucy said, her voice beginning to sound frantic as she brought up the subject of Marde.

"Heartfilia calm down, you're getting yourself worked up again. Let's just focus on finding your father first, what is his name? I'll ask around to see if he's here" Natsu said, cutting her off before she could continue.

"Jude Heartfilia, but still Natsu what if Jackal did this because he found out that we're trying to figure out who he is? What if he did this to freak me out or something? My father is always staying late at work, what if..." Lucy said before she began to trail off, tears beginning to well in her eyes. Her father's assistant had called her after the bomb had gone off to tell her what had happened and that she didn't know where Jude was.

She had told Lucy that Jude had left his office, not like he was leaving for home since he had left the office door unlocked, and that she didn't know where he had went. By then Lucy was shoving on a pair of shoes and was out the door. Even if she and her father didn't have the best relationship didn't mean she wasn't worried out of her mind of what had happened to him, all the possible situations running through her head as she ran down to city hall.

"Heartfilia, calm down okay" Natsu said, grabbing Lucy's shoulders and turning her around to face him. "Listen, I promise you that this was not done as an attack on you, okay? If Marde Geer is the guy we are looking for than it would make sense that Jackal would attack his work place as a way to threaten him, like he's not safe at all no matter where he is. Jackal probably didn't even make a connection to you and your father, it's just a coincident."

"O-okay" Lucy said, a little taken back with Natsu's outburst.

"Do you feel a little better?" Natsu asked, releasing her shoulders from his grip.

"I'd feel a lot better if I could find my father" Lucy said, staring blankly at Natsu.

"Okay than, let's go find your dad" Natsu said as he walked up to the closest officer with Lucy following him. "Do you happen to know anything about Jude Heartfilia?"

The officer looked him over with a raised brow before answering; apparently he wasn't one who worked with Gildarts. "Yeah" the officer said before pointing his thumb behind him "He's over there with the others who were in building. I think only one person got seriously injured."

"Thanks" Natsu said before steering Lucy in the direction the man had pointed. "Do you see him?"

Lucy scanned the faces that were standing around and let out of sigh of relief when she recognized one of the faces. "Yes, he's fine" Lucy said before running over to him.

"Lucy" Jude said as he seemed to recover from Lucy's sudden hug "What are you doing here?"

"What do you think I'm doing here you idiot?" Lucy asked as she squeezed her arms tighter around her father. "I was worried."

"Still" Jude said as he patted his daughter's arm. "Why did you show up here?"

"What do you mean?" Lucy asked as she drew back from the hug. "Why wouldn't I come rushing down here after hearing that my father was in a building that a bomb had gone off in?"

"I just thought-" Jude said before cutting himself off mid-sentence. "Never mind."

"So are you alright, I mean you seem alright" Lucy said as she looked him over.

"I'm just a little shaken up, I was close to the blast so they want to take me to the hospital to watch me for the next twenty-four hours to be sure" Jude said. "They'll be loading me into an ambulance soon I guess."

"Okay" Lucy said. "Call me when your let out, okay?"

"Okay, I didn't mean to make you worry" Jude said.

"It's fine, I'm just glad you're fine" Lucy said as looked over at Natsu who seemed to be pretending to not be watching. "I'm going to head home."

"I'll talk to you tomorrow Lucy" Jude said as he watched Lucy walk over to Natsu.

"So, do you feel better?" Natsu asked once Lucy was standing next to him again.

"Yeah" Lucy said "I need some sleep though. Thank god I only live two blocks away."

"Do you want me to walk with you?" Natsu asked, a few milliseconds later he realized what exactly he had said and began to kick himself. No way would she agree to the offer, just a few seconds ago she was shrugging him off, but he just loved to embarrass himself even more.

"Sure, that would help calm my mind I guess" Lucy said.

"Really?" Natsu asked, surprised she had accepted.

"Yeah, if I have a big strong FBI agent with me than I don't have to worry about Jackal jumping out and attacking me" Lucy said with a laugh. "My imagination is a bit wild."

"I see" Natsu said. "Well I'll make sure to shield you with my body if he throws a bomb at us."

"Can people even throw bombs?" Lucy asked.

"Sure if their small" Natsu answered as the two of them walked away from city hall.

"I think you're talking about grenades" Lucy said with a chuckle as the bright lights from city hall began to disappear.

"I guess you're right" Natsu said with a shrug. "So, um, did you talk with your dad about Marde?"

"Yeah I did, that's why I had called him before the bomb went off" Lucy said. "He wasn't able to tell me much but he did tell me that almost everyone who works at city hall doesn't like him."

"Really, why?" Natsu asked, he had thought since the public seemed to love him so that it be the same for his co-workers.

"Apparently they think he's too good to be true" Lucy said. "My father called him slimy."

"Slimy?" Natsu asked, stifling a laugh.

"I know, I thought it was pretty weird too" Lucy said before a comfortable silence fell between them.

Shoving his hands in his pocket Natsu figured it only be about five minutes until they reached Lucy's apartment. He wondered whether or not to fill her in on what he had found, which wasn't much, he had already told her about the main thing he had found out about Jackal.

"Listen, thanks for helping me out back there" Lucy said, suddenly breaking the silence.

"Hey, no problem" Natsu said "Just helping a fri-someone out. Nothing to it really."

"Still, I appreciate it. Anyway, do you have any sort of plan for what you're going to do once we find out everything we need to know to pin down Marde and find Jackal?" Lucy asked a little confused on how Natsu planned to go around all of this.

"I'm not sure to be honest" Natsu said as he ran a hand through his hair. "But the main goal is to arrest Marde and Jackal. They seem to be considered the strongest members of the gang. Plus, since they're the instigators of this war, perhaps if they are out of the equation than maybe the war will come to an end. It would cripple them if their two strongest members were taking away in the middle of the war; they'd feel pressure to end it since neither side would really have a reason for fighting."

"I suppose your right" Lucy said as she stopped outside of an apartment complex. "Thanks for walking me back, it helped calm my nerves."

"No problem, well I hope you'll be fine by yourself" Natsu said as he raised his hand in goodbye.

Lucy returned the gesture as she said "I'll be fine, if anyone should be worried about being targeted it should be you right?"

"Haha" Natsu said hoping his laugh didn't sound too fake. "I guess you're right. I'll see you tomorrow then."

"See you tomorrow" Lucy said as she watched him walk away and eventually turn down the street. Heading inside she walked up the steps to her apartment and tried to ignore the fact that she had forgotten to lock the door in her haste to get to city hall earlier. The second her head hit her pillow she fell asleep.


	9. Politicophobia (Fear of Politicians)

Natsu ran his fingers through his hair as he cursed under his breath. Even with the notes added to the file he could still barely understand exactly what the report was saying. He had managed to get Makarov to give him a copy of the file that contained all the information that had been found so far on the bombing last night.

He had already put a request in to Gildarts for the file on Jackal and was hoping he'd be able to get it by the afternoon. So far all he had been able to decipher from the file was the kind of bomb used, so all he had to do was compare the makeup of the recent bomb to the ones that Jackal had used. If they matched up perfectly than it most likely meant it was the same bomber since according to experts each bomber added their own kind of mark or signature to identify themselves. Hopefully the recent bomb matched up with the old ones to connect the two cases.

From there he'd have to start his search for Jackal by investigating any of the old suspects and then he could go from there. Even if he arrested them for the bombings, rather than being part of a gang, it was still better than nothing. It would get him out of Tartaros' war and then all he'd have left was to convict Marde which was beginning to look like the hardest part of this case.

He hadn't talked to Lucy since last night, and honestly he was a little worried for her. If he wasn't so busy with looking over all these damn reports he would have gone done to the lab to keep her company. She has texted him earlier to tell him she planned on looking over the autopsy files again to see if she could find anything.

Leafing through the file again he wondered if he should just google up some of these terms rather than just ignoring them, it would give him something to do rather than just waiting around for the Jackal file. He was just turning around to face his computer when Gray came by and dropped something onto his desk.

"Gildarts asked me to drop this off to you when I went down there earlier" Gray said as he flopped down into his chair. "That's a pretty old file you're looking at, how do you think it's going to help you out?"

"I don't really have time to explain" Natsu said as he opened up the file, sitting on top was a picture of the exploded parts of a bomb. "But I think the guy that bombed city hall last night is the same guy from this case."

"Okay" Gray said, drawing out his answer. "But what does it have to do with your little investigation? You're not on the bombing from last night so why are you looking at it?"

"Like I said it's too complicated to explain everything, let's just say that this bomber might be a suspect in my investigation, okay?" Natsu said as he got to the page that explained the make-up of the bombs in the old attacks.

"Geez fine, sorry for asking" Gray said as he turned away to Natsu and back to his desk.

Opening the file Natsu read over the contents that the older bombs consisted of and compared them with the recent one. From what he could tell they had the same chemicals in them, though if he remembered anything about bombs it was that chemicals such as chlorine were common in bombs. But what did stood out, or at least he figured it should since it was circled in red pen, was the type of insulation used in constructing the bomb.

It was a type of insulation called Tibson; it was composed of a mixture of plaster, lead and asbestos. At least this meant Jackal was most likely working out of an old building if both of these bombs had the same type of insulation in them.

Turning to his computer he searched to see if there were any buildings in the area with this type of insulation. There was only one street in Magnolia that had that type of insulation in the buildings and almost all of them were abandoned, this would be the perfect place for Jackal to construct his bombs and perhaps it was close to the base of Tartaros as well. He needed to show this to Makarov.

Pushing back from his desk he grabbed the two files and headed to Makarov's office. Knocking on the door he barely waited for a response before he barged in.

"Chief I found something" Natsu said as he came to a stop in front of Makarov's desk.

"And what is it that you found that is so important you had to come barging in for?" Makarov asked as he folded his hands.

"Listen chief, I found a connection between the bomber case from four years ago and the one that happened yesterday" Natsu said placing the two files on his desk before he folded his arms behind his back.

"I see, please tell me how you found that connection when you're not even assigned to that case?" Makarov asked as he glared a hole through Natsu.

"Because I believe that the bomber from the old case is a possible suspect in my investigation, so I decided to compare the bombs from the old and new case to see if they were the same" Natsu said as he began to tap his foot nervously, he knew what the next question would be.

"While that is a good find, remind me again what exactly you're looking for in your case?"

"I am examining the numerous gang related deaths with the help of a local anthropologist. I believe that this bomber is a part of the gang, which I will tell you in detail how I came to this conclusion in the report I send you tonight" Natsu said as he continued to stare straight ahead.

"You better not be hiding anything from me Dragneel" Makarov said as he scanned Natsu's face for anything that would show he was hiding something. "You better include in your report you send me tonight everything you've found in great detail. This is important Dragneel; you can't hide information from me because you don't want to be taken off the case. It is in your best interest not to lie to me if you want to keep your job."

"Yes Chief" Natsu said with a curt nod. "Before I go I was hoping if you could tell me who the suspects were in the old bomber case, it wasn't included in the file I received."

"I wouldn't think so" Makarov said "The only suspect we ever found disappeared before we even talked to him. We figured it meant he was the bomber; he left behind no trace at all. It was like he just disappeared one day. He never told his landlord or his boss he was leaving, one his friends filed a missing person's report for him. We never were able to find him, the police didn't put him under suspects since everyone who knew him believed he had been kidnapped or something."

"So what was the suspect's name?" Natsu asked.

"His name was Jeremy Nico, a local who had worked as a construction worker" Makarov said "There's not much else I can say about him that will help you out. He's in the system, so if you want a picture you can find one in the database."

"Thank you Chief" Natsu said before he took to cue to leave the room. He headed back to his desk and noted that Gray was gone, at least he wouldn't have to listen to that popsicle get yelled out for breaking dress code, which was something he did about every day.

Typing in Jeremy Nico into the system brought up a picture of a tan freckled man with blonde hair that Natsu couldn't help but wonder if it was dyed. Nothing stood out about him; expect maybe the mean look on his face.

At least now he probably had a face to pin to Jackal, he was wondering if he should send the picture to Gajeel to see if he could confirm it. Figuring it wouldn't hurt, he sent Gajeel the picture without anything else, didn't need for someone to see it that shouldn't and jump to conclusions.

His next step should be either figuring out where Tartaros' base was located and to see if he could get any farther with his hunch on Marde. City hall was going to be busting today considering what had happened the night before, so that would be off the plate for a while.

Tapping his fingers against the desk he figured he might need to go undercover if he couldn't find someone who knew where Tartaros was based out of. His best bet for this would probably be Jellal; Gajeel mainly kept his nose in Phantom Lord and didn't worry too much about the other gangs.

Natsu knew by now that Jellal would have changed his number again, he did it about every few days, so the only way he'd be able to get in contact with him was if Jellal called him.

Taking his phone out of his pocket, he placed it on his desk and stared at it while continuing to tap his fingers against the desk. No one ever knew what number to use to get a hold of Jellal until he called them, so Natsu was screwed unless Jellal could somehow sense that Natsu wanted to call him. Turning back to the computer screen he figured he could worry about it later and that he needed to worry more about matters that he could actually investigate without causing Makarov to kick him off the case.

A few minutes, as if his hopes had been heard, his phone went off. Picking it up he saw it was an unknown number, maybe he was going to get lucky and it wasn't a telemarketer.

Picking up he answered. "Hello."

"Hello Natsu, I have some information that I think might be useful to you" Jellal said. "I forgot to tell you about this the last time we talked; I hope you're not busy right now."

"Jellal" Natsu said. "You're just the person I wanted to talk to."

"That's one of the nicest greetings I've gotten in a long time" Jellal said. "Anyway, I found out where Tartaros is probably operating out of."

"Probably?" Natsu asked as he leaned back against his chair.

"Listen, I know for sure the area they work in but not the exact building their operating in. Who knows, it may be more than one building" Jellal said.

"So where are they then?" Natsu asked as he took out a pen and paper.

"Do you know the street that's right next to the docks? The one with all the old abandoned buildings, that's where their hideout is located, somewhere in one of those buildings" Jellal said as Natsu wrote it all down. If he was thinking of the same street as Jellal, than that might mean the mystery bomber was building bombs on the same street that Tartaros was located which couldn't be a coincidence. It looked like he had a link to put together the bomber Jackal and Tartaros.

"Thanks Jellal, this is a big help" Natsu said as he placed his pen down.

"No problem, I figure once you figure out where exactly it is you're going to storm the place" Jellal said.

"Something like that, though it'll probably be my chief who decides to do that" Natsu said. "Anyway, thanks again Jellal."

"Until next time Natsu" Jellal said before hanging up. Slipping his phone back into his pocket Natsu pulled up a map of the street that both Tartaros and Jackal were working out of. The fact that all of the buildings in the area used Tibson as their insulation didn't help narrow it down for Jackal, but Tartaros was a large group of people and they would need a larger space to work in. That at least got rid of three buildings, all of which were one story and half destroyed. So that left him with about eleven buildings for him to look through, at least now he had a game plan for the rest of the day.

Getting up out of his chair he headed outside. He was just getting into the elevator when his phone rang again. Taking it out of his pocket he stifled a groan when he saw the caller id, Gray, what did that popsicle want to talk to him about.

"What do you want Fullbuster?" Natsu said after accepting the call.

"Geez what the hell got under your skin today?" Gray grumbled. "Listen, the chief told me to call you if something like this showed up."

"If what showed up?" Natsu asked as he pushed the button to take him down.

"I got called in to look at a crime scene because what was found was definitely a murder, what happened here isn't exactly something you do on accident-" Gray said before Natsu interrupted him.

"What doesn't happen on accident Fullbuster, you gotta be clearer when you're trying to explain something" Natsu said as the elevator dinged open.

"The guy was chopped up into tiny pieces and then spread throughout a local park" Gray answered, deadpan as usual.

"Oh" Natsu said as he headed outside.

"Yeah" Gray said "Anyway I was figuring I was going to be looking for a real sicko when someone found a tattoo on one of the pieces or whatever. Anyway I remembered it from somewhere and called the Chief to ask him what he thought of it. He told me to call you and that this case was now yours."

"Well that makes the death toll at seventy one" Natsu said. "Thanks Fullbuster, what park are you at?"

"West Side Magnolia" Gray said. "So will you tell me now what kind of case your own."

"Goodbye Fullbuster" Natsu said before hanging up, ignoring Gray's cries of protest. Maybe if he was still there when Natsu got there he would tell him the gist of what was going on.

Getting into a car he dialed Lucy's number, hopefully she wouldn't be angry at him for interrupting her even though by now she had probably read through the reports three times already. She picked up on the second ring.

"Hey Heartfilia" Natsu said as he backed out of the parking lot. "We got a body, it's at West Side Magnolia. You want me to pick you up on my way."

"Oh, um, yes that be nice" Lucy said. "Finally a new body to look over, I thought I was going to lose it looking over the same bones over and over."

"Okay then, I'm on my way, be there in five minutes. I'll pick you up out front" Natsu said as he pulled onto the highway.

"I'll be waiting" Lucy said before hanging up.

/

When they arrived at the park the scene was still filled with a large amount of police, technicians and nosy citizens straining to get a look at what was going on.

Getting out of the car Lucy headed straight for the technicians, not waiting for Natsu. By now she had gotten comfortable enough to be on crime scenes without being a few feet from Natsu.

Pulling on a pair of gloves she crouched down with the technicians as she looked over the pieces they had found so far. Picking one up she examined the cut of it and noted that it wasn't just flesh, but bones as well. So the killer must have hacked up the entire body then instead of just certain parts as she had thought when Natsu had explained to her what he had heard so far.

The cuts were clean on both the flesh and the bone, so whoever did this was careful and meticulous, not to mention well practiced in the field which might mean that…"Did you find a head?" Lucy asked, turning to one of the technicians.

"Yes" she said before pointing over to a black bag by an officer. "They made us put it in a bag real quick though, they said so it wouldn't frighten the public if they saw it, but I personally think it freaked them out."

"So it was a decapitated head then?" Lucy asked.

"Yeah but the eyes were gauged out and the tongue was cut out as well" she said.

"They're probably around here with the rest of the body parts, we should keep our eyes out for them as well" Lucy said as the technician nodded before turning back to her work.

Turning her attention back to the body piece she decided she knew what kind of person did this. Turning around she saw Natsu standing by what looked like another FBI agent, waving her arms at him to get his attention she motioned for him to come over when he had noticed her.

"I'm pretty sure a doctor did this" Lucy said once Natsu had reached her.

"Really, how can you tell?" Natsu asked as he crouched down next to her.

"The cuts on the bones and flesh are clean, and I have a feeling that we'll find the victim's organs around here somewhere but not cut up like this" Lucy said as she showed him the piece.

"Uh huh" Natsu said as he moved her hand out for his face. "How can you be so sure about all of this?"

"No random person can make such clean cuts. Inexperienced people would shake causing their cuts to be messy. Doctors on the other hand have to able to keep their hand steady so when they make a cut they're clean and don't hit anything they don't want to" Lucy said offering up the piece again for him to look at.

"Okay then, I trust you" Natsu said, now just ignoring the piece. "There is an underground doctor or something in Tartaros, Keyes I think is his name."

"Well then it was probably him who did this" Lucy said. "When I get back to the lab I'll put his DNA in to see if I can find a match in the system."

"Keyes in on Jackal's side so this guy must have been with Marde" Natsu said as he gestured at the piece in Lucy's hand. "Apparently the head is pretty messed up, the guy over there was telling me about it."

"Yeah" Lucy said, putting the piece back into the bag before standing up. "The eyes are gauged out and the tongue was cut out."

"Geez" Natsu winced. "That must've been a pretty sight."

"No I suppose not" Lucy said. "I'm going to go help look for the rest of the pieces, hopefully there shouldn't be too many left. You just do whatever it is you do."

"Okay than Heartfilia" Natsu said as he stood up. "Just come and get me when you're ready to leave." As he walked away he couldn't help but think that Jackal had planned two attacks against Marde last night and that it wasn't looking too good for Marde. He'd be striking somehow soon, it was looking like there were going to be more bodies tomorrow morning.

/

Lucy had some free time on her hands surprisingly. She had figured that since a new body had been found she would be busy. But after only an hour of getting all the pieces back to the lab she didn't have much else to do.

She had already swabbed for particulates to figure out what kind of tools were used in dismembering the body. She had then begun the cleaning process for the bones and had put the DNA into the system to see if it had found a match. Which it did, the victim's name was Jared Tesla who had been arrested a few times before for carrying unregistered firearms.

She had called Natsu to tell him this but he had seemed distracted. He had told her he would call someone and ask about the victim.

So now here she was waiting for the results to get back for the particulates and for the bones to finish cleaning. Since she had this extra time she decided she would make use of it and do a little bit of snooping too.

When she got to city hall she noted how they had covered up the hole with some type of large tarp. She honestly had wondered if anyone would even be working there. But luckily when she walked in she was greeted by a receptionist she knew quite well.

"Oh Lucy" Kira said, leaning forward in her chair and looking Lucy up and down. "It's been so long since I last saw you, you've grown."

"It hasn't been that long Kira" Lucy said as she shifted from foot to foot, at least it wouldn't seem suspicious if she showed up here unlike Natsu. Since her father had worked here practically his whole life most of the long time workers knew Lucy as well, they would just figure she was coming here to pick something up for Jude.

"Oh hush, yes it has" Kira said. "So what is the surprise visit for?"

"Oh, I um, I'm here to pick up some paper work for my father" Lucy said before adding "You know how he is, even when he's in the hospital he wants to keep working."

"Oh did he get hurt in the blast last night?" Kira asked. "I don't remember anyone mentioning his name."

"No he isn't hurt, but he was close when the bomb went off so they want to make sure he really is alright" Lucy before picking a pen from off the counter. "Do I need to sign in?"

"Oh it's fine Lucy" Kira said, waving her hand at her. "I don't have to worry about you. I'll just add you in myself when I hand in the list of visitors later today, besides you're probably going to be the only one showing up today."

"Thanks Kira" Lucy said before heading up the stairs to where the offices were. Bypassing Jude's office she went straight to Marde's. Standing outside the door to his office she wondered how exactly she was going to do this.

Knocking on the door first she waited to see if there was anyone inside. When she didn't hear so much of someone moving she tried the doorknob. Turning it she found the door was unlocked, lucky her. Opening the door more she slipped inside, leaving the door cracked open she looked around the office.

Nothing stood out, there was a desk that was semi-neat, a bunch of bookcase filled with books and awards and file cabinets lined up behind the desk. Heading over to his desk she looked over the contents on the desk.

Opening the laptop that was sitting on the desk she crossed her fingers that it wasn't password protected and lo and behold it opened up to his emails. Scrolling through them she kept an eye on the door for any movement. If anyone caught her in here she could just say that her father had asked her to get some paperwork from Marde. Hopefully that wouldn't set any red flags but she figured she could cross that bridge when she got there.

The emails seemed standard, a bunch of junk but not many to with job it seemed which was odd considering he seemed like the type who would get a bunch of fan mail.

Taking out her phone she typed in city halls website before going to "Contact Your Politicians." Clicking on Marde Geer she looked at his work email to the one that was up right now and found that they were different.

Nothing suspicious about that she supposed but still, if he had any contact with Tartaros members through this email she might be able to find something to link him to them.

Scrolling through his newer emails she found nothing, but all of them were unread. Clicking on the trash file she figured Marde wouldn't be stupid enough to actually keep any emails he had gotten from them up so her best bet was that they were in his trash.

Looking through his most recent ones she wasn't getting much luck until she found one that stood out. It didn't have a subject line and it had been sent from someone's phone. Clicking on it she crossed her fingers and hoped she would find something useful.

 _"_ _Boss, it would seem like Jackal continues to act irrationally and rebel against you. I would suggest taking quick action against him as soon as possible to null his little rebellion before it grows out of hand. Also, I have a suggestion for one of your next platforms, perhaps you should talk about reducing the amount of gang activity in the town. I'm sure after this squabble is over the public will be more than frightened. -Kyoka"_

Now that was definitely suspicious. Taking out her phone, Lucy snapped a picture of the email. Exiting out of that one she continued on for anymore emails only to find none. It looked like Marde was good at getting rid of anything that could be held against him. Leaving that file she went back to the original page that had been up before closing the computer.

Looking over the desk again she noticed that it had drawers. Hesitating for a second she considered whether there would really be anything in them but the whole pointing of snooping around was looking through stuff. Opening the first drawer she was greeted by manila folders. Flipping through them she looked to see if anything stood out or rang a bell but there was nothing that stuck out to her.

Closing the first drawer she went on the second one only to see the same thing. The third drawer though was a bit different. There wasn't much in it. There was a picture frame with an old picture of what looked like two young boys inside of it, while it didn't seem like much something told her to take a picture of it anyway. The rest of the content was just extra pens, paper and ink.

She was about to just give up her search and leave before anyone saw her when she noticed something off. It looked like there was a crack in the wood right under the picture. Taking the picture out of the drawer careful she found what looked to be a panel that had been partially hidden by the picture.

Prying the panel off Lucy revealed a hidden compartment and sitting inside of the compartment was a handgun. Alarms were going off in Lucy's head as she wondered whether she should just cover everything back up and run like hell out of city hall. Pushing those thoughts aside Lucy took a picture of the gun before taking a picture of its serial number.

Covering it back up with the panel before placing the picture overtop of it she closed the drawer quickly. Standing up she slipped her phone back in her pocket before hurrying to the door. Just as she was grabbing the doorknob the door flew open.

Lucy nearly ran into the person who had opened the door. "Sorry, sorry, geez I wasn't paying much attention" Lucy said, apologizing profusely before looking up at the person she had almost ran into and felt her blood go cold.

"It's quite fine" Marde Geer said as he smoothed his shirt as if she had really run into him "No one was harmed, but I must ask who you are and why are you in my office?"

"Oh um" Lucy said, rubbing the back of her head, she hadn't been prepared to run into Marde, she could feel her heart beating out of her chest and hoped he couldn't hear it pounding. "My father, Jude Heartfilia, needed me to pick up something for him. He told me if I couldn't find it in his office to check to see if you had it on your desk. I'm really sorry for intruding, the door was unlocked."

"Uh huh" Marde said as he looked her up and down with a raised brow. "So what is your name th-"

"Oh well since it wasn't in your office I'm going to go check my father's again. Sorry for bothering you" Lucy said hurriedly breezing by Marde keeping her eyes forward not even looking back at him. As she ran out of city hall she hoped that Marde wouldn't notice she had gone through his things, that she hadn't disturbed anything too much for him to notice a change.

Heading back to the lab she figured at least she had something to give Natsu to investigate for Marde.


	10. Atelophobia (Fear of Imperfections)

Natsu didn't have too much luck looking for Tartaros' headquarters, what he did find though was Marde and a man, that he later learned was Franmalth, meeting up. He had seen the two of them when he had been scouting out the buildings. He had hid behind a wall and had been able to record a part of their conversation on his phone.

It wasn't much though; he himself had barely been able to hear them talk so he was sure the recording was any better. At least he had been smart enough to take a picture of the two before he had started recording. He figured with both a picture and recorded evidence of the meetup that would be enough to keep Marde from claiming it was forged. While it wasn't enough to convict Marde of much it was something that could help convince a jury that he had a part in the gang.

By the time he had finished scouting out the buildings and writing his report for Makarov it was late. Taking out his phone he considered whether he should call Lucy or not. While talking on the phone was quicker, the two of them were able to piece things together much better when speaking face to face. He had made up his mind a few seconds later, pushing the call button he waited for Lucy to pick up.

"Hey Heartfilia" Natsu said when he heard her pick-up. "I was wondering if you wanted to meet up at the diner?"

"Sure" Lucy said. "I was just about to call you and ask you that. I have some stuff I want to share with you that would be better to show in person."

"Okay, great" Natsu said as he got up from the chair. "I'll meet you there."

"See you there" Lucy said before she hung up.

/

The two of them met up at the diner and sat down it what was slowly becoming "their booth." After the two had ordered they began to talk about their findings.

"So, I was able to at least narrow down where Tartaros is located and maybe where Jackal is at least building his bombs" Natsu said. "The bomb from last night matches up with the ones used in the old bombing case. I also have a name for Jackal now, Jeremy Nico. He was the suspect in some old bombings but he disappeared before he could be questioned."

"Well wouldn't that probably mean that he was the bomber?" Lucy asked.

"Yeah normally that's a big flashing sign but no one can be sure until he is questioned and such. Plus one of his friends ended up filing a missing person's report on him so it just kind of ended badly" Natsu said as he took his phone out of his pocket. "Now moving on from Jackal, I found something that could probably be held against Marde." Sliding open his phone, he brought up the picture of Marde and Franmalth.

"Who's the other guy?" Lucy asked, pointing at the screen.

"Franmalth, Tartaros' informant and spy" Natsu said as he exited out of the photo and went over to his recording. "I was able to somewhat record their conversation but I'm sure it's mainly static."

"Well let's hear it" Lucy said, leaning more across the table in hopes she would be able to hear the recording better.

Clicking play the two of them listened to the recording. Just like Natsu had predicted they could hardly hear anything, almost every word was muffled or just some sort of awkward static. The few words they even managed to hear and make out just sounded like a string of random words "…is onto…find…. can about…going…target…someone…do away…everything I…..to do this."

"That doesn't make much sense" Lucy said, leaning back into her seat.

"If you put the words together you can kind of figure out what he might have been saying" Natsu said. "Since I barely heard anything they said myself I'm kind of in the dark, so the best way to figure it out is to piece all the words together."

"Okay" Lucy said. "Well he said something about a target and to do away with something so maybe he was talking about how he's going to strike back against Jackal tonight."

"That's a good theory" Natsu said as he took a napkin out of the dispenser. Taking out a pen he began to write. "But then they also talked someone being onto something, maybe they've figured out we're investigating them?"

"True" Lucy said as she rested her chin on her hand. "It seems like Marde was telling him to look into something for him, maybe something to do with Jackal or about the attacks against him last night."

"That would make sense" Natsu said, tapping his fingers against the table. "Still that's only speculation, there's not much that could be really used against him in court, hell this probably wouldn't be enough to even get an arrest warrant."

"So what you're saying is that this won't be very helpful?" Lucy asked.

"Pretty much" Natsu said with a sigh before turning his attention to her. "So what have you found?"

"Oh, well you see, I did a little bit of snooping" Lucy said with an apologetic smile, she figures Natsu might not be too happy about her little excursion so the best time to start apologizing is before she even tells him what she did.

"What kind of snooping?" Natsu asked with a raised brow, a look of concern beginning to show on his face.

"The kind where you look through someone's personal processions to find anything that can be held against them" Lucy said, avoiding eye contact.

"Heartfilia!" Natsu exclaimed jumping up from his seat causing the other patrons to turn their attention to him. Smiling sheepishly he slid back to his seat before turning back to her. "What exactly did you do?" he whisper yelled.

"I went to city hall and peeked around Marde's office" Lucy said. "The door was unlocked and I knocked before I went in. You should be happy since I was able to find more evidence then you that points to Marde hanging around a gang."

"What did you find?" Natsu asked as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I found a very interesting email" Lucy said as she brought up the photo of it on her phone.

Natsu looked it over before looking back up at her. "Please tell me you didn't hack into his computer to get this."

"No it wasn't locked or anything" Lucy said as she swiped to the next picture, the one of the gun. "And I also found something interesting in a hidden panel in his desk." Showing him the picture of the gun she watched as his eyes widen before narrowing again.

"I'll write down the serial number and see who the gun is registered to" Natsu said. "If it's his there's not too much we can do. I mean I'm sure he shouldn't have a gun at city hall but if we did get a search warrant and found it then maybe the most he'd get is a warning to never bring one into city hall again."

"Okay but this would be enough to get a search warrant for his office?" Lucy asked.

Nodding, Natsu said "Yes, I suppose but so what?"

"So what? We might be able to find more stuff in his office" Lucy said. "He had a bunch of bookcases and they all had panels in them, what if he has more hidden panels in his office. For all we know he might be holding drugs or weapons in his office for the gang since they've had so many raids recently. Hiding some of their products, or whatever they call them, in city hall is almost laughable. It's hiding what the enemy wants right under their nose. It might be a smart move to keep their products safe until they can sell or ship them."

"While that is a good idea, there's no way Marde would be able to hide all their drugs in there" Natsu said. "It be too risky."

"Then they would only hold a little in there but enough that if they got raided they'd have a backup supply to sell" Lucy said. "It sounds like a smart idea to me."

"Okay then" Natsu said as he began to write on the napkin again. "So I'm looking up a serial number for a gun and applying for a search warrant for Marde's office. Looks like we're getting closer and closer to piecing this all together Heartfilia."

"It's been pretty fun truthfully" Lucy said with a small smile. "It's been kind of fun working with you, it'll be boring when I have to go back to examining age old remains."

"I agree Heartfilia, it hasn't been half bad having someone to bounce ideas off of, I won't know what to do on my next case. I might be calling you to try and get some ideas" Natsu said with a small laugh as their food came out. "So is there anything else you did today that was probably illegal that I should know about?"

"Nothing illegal" Lucy said. "But I did kind of run into Marde during my snooping."

Natsu seemed to freeze when he heard that, staring at her with wide eyes he asked "Where exactly did this run-in happen?"

"As I was leaving his office" Lucy squeaked as she waited for however Natsu would react, she was hoping he wouldn't implode but who knows.

"Wait, so if I understand you correctly, Marde saw you leaving his office?" Natsu asked as his lips tightened into a straight line.

"Yes" Lucy said. "But I think I had a pretty good lie for why I was in his office though."

"Still this is a boss of drug ring that we're talking about here. He is definitely going to be suspicious and considering I've seen your lying first hand I know you probably weren't all that convincing" Natsu said as he began to think of all the possible scenarios that could happen now. If Marde did suspect Lucy of something then he would surely try and get all the information he could on her. Maybe she was even the person he had requested Franmalth to look into. This was bad very bad.

"Don't worry Natsu" Lucy said, bringing Natsu back from his thoughts. "I'm sure we'll be locking Marde up soon along with Jackal and once their gone I should be safe, right?"

"Yeah" Natsu said with a sign and even though his brain was telling him no, he agreed with her. "You're right. We don't have too much to pin Marde down as the leader of Tartaros but we do definitely have enough to pin him down for conspiring with Tartaros. So now all we need to do is get enough for an arrest warrant and from there we can get a confession."

"How can you be so sure you'll get one when you bring him in?" Lucy asked as she began to eat her food.

"I know a good interrogator, she'll crack him before he can even get a lawyer in there with him" Natsu said with a smirk, once he's able to bring Marde in the politician was in for a rude awakening. "I guess I should hurry up and catch her up on this case so she can actually do it for me."

"Honesty" Lucy said with a shake of her head. "What would you do if you aren't able to convince this person to interrogate Marde for you?"

"Oh trust me, I have some good bribe material that will definitely sway her to do it" Natsu said with a smirk.

"Do I wanna know?"

"No probably not."

/

Natsu had managed to convince Lucy that he had needed to walk home with her just to be safe. Similar to the night before it wasn't awkward, they even made some small talk as they walked. Once they had reached Lucy's apartment he had told, probably sounding like an overly worried parent, to make sure her door and windows were locked.

After their goodbyes he headed home. He was worried about Lucy and felt it weighing on his conscious that he had left her alone. Though it's not like anyone who worked for Marde could move through objects, so as long as Lucy made sure everything was locked she should be fine. But that didn't mean that someone could pick a lock and get in.

For a few seconds he considered turning back and offering to spend the night or something just to make sure, but he felt that he'd be overreacting. Lucy seemed to think that she had been able to convince Marde she was only in his office looking for a file her father had asked her to get him. But still the guilt and worry gnawed at the back of his mind, not that he could do anything about it.

Getting to his apartment door he stood outside of it for a few seconds to gather his thoughts. Digging out his key he unlocked the door and opened it. Pushing the door behind him he hadn't even closed it yet when Happy came running at him, hissing with his fur standing up.

"Happy" Natsu said as he looked down at the frightened cat that was cowering at his ankles. "What the hell scared you?" Turning on the lights as he kicked the door shut with his foot he looked up and felt his blood run cold as his heart seemed to stop beating, he was looking at what, or rather who, had scared Happy. He was grabbing for the gun he always kept holstered to his belt as the man began to talk.

"Hello brother, it has been quite some time seen we've last talked don't you think?" Zeref asked as his usual sadistic smile crossed his face.

Pointing the gun directly at Zeref Natsu did his best to keep his voice steady. "What the hell are you doing here and how the hell did you even get in?" Natsu asked as he stared at the man in front of him who was a sitting in one of Natsu's chairs as if he was stopping by for tea and a chat.

Zeref seems entirely unfazed by the gun as if Natsu was pointing a banana at him. His smile grew wider as he said "I stopped by for a nice chat, we haven't talked in so long and I've missed you. On how I got in it would seem that your bedroom window's lock is loose, you should really tighten it up I wouldn't want something bad to happen to you."

"I didn't realize you cared that much" Natsu said not even trying to bite back any sarcasm in his voice.

"Oh but of course I do, you're my one and only little brother. Why wouldn't I care about you?" Zeref asked as he crossed his legs. "You're important to me and I would really hate for you to get hurt. I never did like how you became a law enforcement pawn, an FBI agent of all things! But I supported you even if it meant you leaving your family."

"What family?" Natsu practically spat. "Igneel died about eight years ago, he was my only family."

"Natsu don't do this" Zeref said as he placed his hand over his heart. "We're family and I wish you would accept that, after everything I've done for you to make sure you would have a normal life, everything I do is to keep you safe."

"Ha" Natsu said as he couldn't stop the angry laughter that was bubbling up from his throat. "That's a real laugh, you control almost every gang within the entire state hell even some out of state, if anything your putting me in more danger by continuing to act like we're brothers."

"Because we are Natsu" Zeref said with a sigh as if they were trying to reason with a child. "We share DNA, same mother and father, we are one hundred percent family. You are my only real family left Natsu, and I don't want to see the people I love die again."

"Talk to me again maybe when you're behind bars" Natsu growled as he considered just pulling the trigger, any other person would. Hell he'd be considered practically a hero if he killed the ultimate gang boss or whatever they were calling him now.

"I know you won't shoot Natsu" Zeref said coolly as he got up from the chair and walked over until the barrel of the gun was pressed to his chest. "Even though you stubbornly deny that we're brothers, you'd never be able to shoot me. That's why I haven't taken the gun away from you."

"Who says I won't?" Natsu hissed.

"You know I'm not very happy about how one of my gang's is in a quarrel among themselves, as if they are school children. But even if they are school children, they're dangerous. Natsu, you're in over your head and as your brother I suggest you back out of this fight now before you get hurt."

"You know nothing about me; I'm handling this investigation perfectly fine. It's not up to you, one of the people I should be arresting might I add, to decide what situation I'm in" Natsu said, tightening his grip on the gun.

"So that's how you're going to be" Zeref said. "You know, I've been watching you since you've started this little investigation of yours to keep an eye on you of course. That nice looking blonde girl you've been working with, oh what's her name?"

Natsu could feel himself beginning to shake, he could deal with Zeref being a creep and watching him but watching the people around him was crossing the line.

"Lucy right?" Zeref asked as he raised his eyebrow as if he was teasing Natsu, egging him to continue this conversation until Zeref got something he wanted.

"Leave her out of this" Natsu snarled. "You can fuck with me but you leave her the hell out of this sick little game of yours!"

"Oooo touchy I see" Zeref said, teasing heavy in his voice. "What is your relationship with that girl huh? I don't know if it be a good idea to get together with someone like her. The two of you are so different, until you were adopted by Igneel you lived on the streets with me, struggling to live, but she came from a nice cushy home. The two of you are practically different species. You're too dark, too damaged to be with someone that hasn't been touched by that kind of darkness, someone who'd never be able to understand what you've gone through. Lucy Heartfilia-"

"How do you know her last name?" Natsu asked, cutting him off.

"Well you do only call her by it" Zeref said with a simple shrug. "Now as I was saying-"

"You also knew she came from a wealthy family and that I only call her by her last name" Natsu said as he pressed the gun harder into Zeref's chest. "How the hell do you know so much, have you been stalking us or something?"

"Or something" Zeref says simply. "I had someone look into her once I learned her first name. There are a lot of people in this city with the name Lucy but only one is a forensic anthropologist."

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Natsu asked hatred filling his voice. "If you cared about me so much you would just leave me alone."

"Natsu, everything I do is to help you" Zeref said, again with the vague answers of his. "Just like the reason I came to see you tonight. I have a little warning for you Natsu; it's not only me who knows about your little blonde friend. Jackal and Marde know all about her and are out for her head, all for different reasons of course."

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Natsu said as he felt fear ripping through his veins.

"Marde wants Lucy dead because she went snooping through his personal belongings and found something she shouldn't have. Jackal wants her dead because he found out you're sticking your nose where he doesn't want it and the best way to draw you out is to kill someone close to you, some messed up logic he has, no?" Zeref said his whole tone still mild and pleasant as if he wasn't telling Natsu that someone was out for his partner's life.

"How the hell would you know this?" Natsu asked hoping this was one of Zeref's elaborate and sick jokes.

"They are a part of one of my gang's, I do try and keep a close eye on all of them" Zeref said idly. "What's truly unfortunate is that if you continue down this path Natsu I won't be able to keep protecting you. My powers only goes so far and we can't have people getting suspicious now can we? I will give you one more little tidbit, if you want your friend to be alive to see tomorrow you might want to leave to go check on her."

"Wait, they're planning on killing her tonight?!" Natsu asked as he began to feel his hand shake, he needed to get out of here now and check on Lucy even if she ended thinking he was paranoid or something, he needed to check on her.

"Of course" Zeref said. "Why wait?"

"I swear" Natsu hissed as he drew the gun back from Zeref. Turning away from the man he ran to his door.

"You know Natsu" Zeref said just as Natsu opened the door. "You're always welcomed back, to me, to your family. All you have to do is say the word and we can be together again, just like when we were younger."

"Like I said Zeref" Natsu growled. "We aren't family." Running out the door he slammed it behind him. Taking the stairs two at a time he was practically sprinting down the street towards Lucy's apartment, praying the whole way that she would be fine when he got there.


	11. Agliophobia (Fear of Pain)

Lucy was tired, the kind of tired that seemed to seep into your bones and weigh you down. Everything that had happened this past week had almost seemed like some kind of blur.

She had done so much work for this case, yet it all seemed to blend together by the end of the day. Maybe it was just that her brain turned to mush by the end of the day since she had been taking on a larger workload then normal.

By the time the case was over and she was back to ancient remains she probably wouldn't feel this tired and maybe her brain would be less frazzled by the end of the day.

Turning the knob in the shower off, she stood in the warm leftover steam for a few extra seconds before wrapping a towel around herself and stepping out. Pausing in front of the mirror for a few seconds she noted that she seemed to have noticeable dark circles under her eyes.

She had been losing a lot of sleep these past few nights due to her laying awake at night in bed trying to figure something new out, to try and piece together a new idea to figure out how to solve this case or to put a spin on any of her findings. Her job was to simply look at the dead bodies and tell Natsu what she had learned from them. Her results were to help guide him, she probably wasn't supposed to be helping him out in the extra ways she has been.

But she couldn't help but crave the thrill of solving a good mystery and she was quickly finding out that the best way to quench that thirst was to work with Natsu.

Walking into her bedroom she pulled on a pair of sweatpants and t-shirt. Leaving her towel on the floor she flopped down onto her bed and curled up into a ball.

Even though she had done her best to seem calm, cool and collected towards Natsu when she told him about how Marde had seen her that was far away from what she was actually feeling, and Natsu questioning whether or not the person Marde had been talking about in the recording was her didn't help either. She was honestly a little scared that Marde somehow noticed that she had been snooping and was now sending someone out to get her.

Lucy wasn't so sure what getting her would entail but she figured it couldn't be too good. Pressing her knees against her stomach Lucy hoped she'd be able to get some sleep tonight.

She was beginning to drift off when she heard a noise, like a soft thumping noise. Normally she would just ignore it and just write it off as the building moving or a tree or even her neighbor's. But for some reason, probably her fried nerves, it sent her wide awake.

Sitting up in her bed she strained to hear something else, another soft thumping noise sent her senses off. She could hear her heart thumping in her ears as she swung her legs over the side of the bed and headed towards her bedroom door.

Looking over at her phone she wondered whether she should call Natsu, but shook her head at the idea. If it turned out to be nothing she would feel ridiculous, but if it was something….

Grabbing her phone she cracked the door open to look out to see if she could see anything. She had forgotten to turn the light off in the room so at least she could see everything, and nothing seemed out of place.

"Is anyone there?" Lucy asked before mentally slapping herself, as if a murderer would answer her question.

Stepping out into the other room she scanned to see if she could see anything that set off enough alarms for her to call Natsu. She was just about to just chalk it up to an overactive imagination when she noticed it, an open window.

Lucy could feel her blood run cold as she tried to open her phone to call someone, but it was already too late for that. She felt an arm snake around her neck while she felt a hand slap itself over her mouth.

"Drop the phone dear" said a honeyed feminine voice that Lucy figured must belong to her assailant.

Lucy could hear her heart beating in her ears; the sound seemed deafening, muffling the assailant's voice. Gripping her phone tighter she wondered if she would be able to open it enough to hit the emergency button. Maybe if she was nonchalant about it she could do it.

Her finger ghosted over the power button of her phone as her assailant's grip on her tightened.

"I'll tell you again" the assailant hissed, all her fake sweetness gone. "Drop the phone, or else."

If Lucy had been in a better mood she might have said something stupid back that in hindsight might have gotten her killed. But before her brain could even come up with a smart comeback she felt something cold being pressed to her neck.

"I'd be careful not to move princess" the assailant said. "The slightest move might just slice up your neck, and unfortunately I'm not very good in first aid."

Lucy tried to keep her breathing steady, it was best to try and stay calm in this kind of situation. From what she could figure the knife was pressed right on top of her jugular. The slightest movement that could cause a slip of the knife could result in cutting the large vein in neck; she would be dead fast if that happened.

Letting her phone slip out of her hand she hoped that listening to the assailant's request would leave her alive. She heard it clatter to the floor before skidding away from her, farther than she had hoped. If she had been able to get away from the assailant she had hoped to be able to grab her phone quickly but it sounded like it had moved too far away.

"Good girl" the assailant cooed into her ear. "Now then, you have to promise me you won't scream when I take my hand away from your mouth. We're going to have a little conversation, okay? If you make so much of a squeak without my permission this knife will dig a little deeper into your neck. I don't know how much pressure is needed to slit your neck enough to kill you but I'm sure I can figure it out."

Lucy felt her mouth go dry as her heart continued to pound; it was beginning to sound like she wasn't going to get out here alive without a miracle. All she could do now was hope that as long as she did everything the assailant wanted then maybe she would get out of this alive, maybe, hopefully.

"Now then" the assailant said, taking her hand away from Lucy's mouth. "Lets exchange names, well actually I already know your name, Lucy Heartfilia."

Lucy had to hold back a gasp as she tried to figure out what exactly was going on if this person knew her name, was it someone she knew? Or was it someone hired by Marde or Jackal to silence her or whatever? Lucy was beginning to feel her chances of making this out alive were slowly dwindling.

"My name is Seilah" the assailant said, now with a name. Lucy felt something click in her brain; she had heard this name somewhere before, but where?

"You're probably wondering why I'm here with a knife pressed to your neck, huh?" Seilah asked though Lucy wondered if she was meant to actually answer it.

"Y-yes I suppose" Lucy said as her voice wobbled with the uncertainty of how Seilah would react.

"Well you see Lucy" Seilah said as Lucy let out an internal sign of relief. "My boss told me you were sticking your nose in things you shouldn't be, so he asked me to…punish you for this. You're lucky he was feeling generous today when he gave me this assignment, he gave me two options of how I could punish you. The first one was quite to the point, kill you. But you see, that isn't really my style. I'd rather convince you to kill yourself or something. Now my second option was a lot more fun. So as long as you behave that's what I'm going to do to you."

Lucy wanted to know what this second option was, or to be more specific, what was going to be done to her. She could only vaguely remember hearing the name from Natsu but for what she couldn't quite remember. At least now she knew why this was happening, Marde had figured out she had snooped through his stuff.

"Listen to everything I say and you have a chance to live, okay dearie?" Seilah asked as her hand that had been hovering in front of Lucy's mouth, in case she screamed, was finally taken away.

"Okay" Lucy said as she stood rigidly still, her legs were beginning to shake and with each passing second she worried that these tremors would reach the rest of her body.

"Good, you're such a good girl Lucy" Seilah said as her grip around Lucy's throat tightened. "Just listen to everything I say and you'll live, but if you don't" Lucy felt the knife push against her skin, the coolness of the blade was in sharp comparison to her burning skin. "Well, I think you know what will happen."

Lucy could hear a metallic clinking noise as she waited for Seilah's next instructions; she hoped it wasn't another knife or even worse, a gun.

Something shiny and circular dropped down from in front of her, entering her vision before stopping right in front of her face. After a quick examination she saw it looked like a pocket watch, and an older one at that.

Something about the watch set something off in her brain and what Natsu had told her about Seilah came rushing back to her like she was getting smacked in the face. Seilah was known for hypnosis and mind control, what the hell did she have planned?

"Now then Lucy, I want you to keep your eyes on this nice watch" Seilah said before she slowly began to swing the watch back and forth.

That was most likely the worst thing Lucy could do in this situation but she wasn't sure how well she could avoid looking at the watch without Seilah noticing. She kept her eyes forward but didn't follow the watch; Seilah was behind her so she shouldn't be able to tell whether or not she was moving her eyes.

"When I said keep your eyes on the watch I meant to follow it" Seilah hissed in her ear, and it was all Lucy could do to not jump in surprise, how did she notice? Seilah pressed the knife against Lucy's throat more, it still didn't have enough pressure to actually cut the skin but if she didn't follow another one of Seilah's directions then it would definitely cut skin

"Now your eyes better be following the watch or else" Seilah said as she sped up the swinging of the watch. "Now then, take deep breathes, okay?"

Lucy didn't respond but she followed Seilah's instructions.

"Good girl" Seilah said, her voice becoming calm and almost serene. "Now, let my voice wash over you and take my words to heart. Relax and listen to what I have to tell you."

Lucy wasn't sure how she was expected to relax with a knife pressed to her throat while being held almost hostage in her own apartment but she tried her best to calm her heart.

"Good" Seilah said. "Now keep your eyes on the watch. You are letting yourself slip deeper and deeper into a peaceful trance where you will hear and believe everything I say."

Lucy found that hard to believe considering she knew exactly what Seilah was trying to do, but she couldn't help but notice that her eyelids were getting heavier. It had been a long day and she was tired, even a knife to her neck couldn't keep her awake it seemed. If she kept her eyes on the watch there was a slim chance she could get hypnotized but at this point she had no other choice but to listen.

"You know Lucy, you and I don't need to be enemies here" Seilah whispered as she placed her head on Lucy's shoulder.

Lucy wouldn't help but think otherwise, someone who was threatening you with a knife was normally not considered a friend. She stayed silent though, biting back any comment she had about that statement.

"In fact" Seilah said, her breath hot against Lucy's ear. "I think we should be allies considering, well, him."

"Who's him?" Lucy asked, could Seilah be talking about Marde, had she for some reason decided she wasn't on his side. Her eyes were becoming hard to keep open but she was doing her best to keep them open, she couldn't go falling asleep while being threatened.

"Why your little friend of course, Natsu Dragneel" Seilah said sweetly into Lucy's ear.

"Natsu?" Lucy asked aloud, what was Seilah talking about, was she an undercover cop or something?

"Yes, him" Seilah hissed, her voice dripping with hatred before quickly switching back to her sugary sweet voice. "He isn't what he appears to be. He isn't some federal agent that does his best to protect the people and punish those who threaten the safety of them or whatever it is he claims to do. That's all a little act he puts on for show."

Lucy could feel her heart beginning to pound again, what was Seilah talking about, something about that sweet voice almost made Lucy want to believe her. It was like Seilah was acting like a good friend who was telling you that the guy you liked was crap and wasn't good enough for you.

But, of course, there was no way she could believe this woman. Natsu was nice, albeit a bit goofy at times, but he was a good person at heart. This all had to be some trick to mess with her mind and trick her into not trusting Natsu which would end up ruining the investigation or something along those lines.

"Listen to me Lucy" Seilah purred. "Every word I utter is putting you faster and deeper into a state of relaxation, every word I utter is going straight to your heart, and every word I'm saying is true."

Her eyelids were beginning to felt like lead and were weighing her down; she really wanted to just close her eyes.

"Natsu is your true enemy here, not us" Seilah whispered. "We just want to help you, to show you the truth of your friend. Natsu Dragneel is hiding a dark secret not just from you, but from everyone. You can't trust him. The only thing he knows how to do is feed off of someone's kindness before stabbing them in the back. Don't be his next victim."

Lucy's throat felt thick, she wanted to open her mouth and say something to defend Natsu. But her words failed her, all she could do was stare straight ahead at the watch, her eyes' were transfixed to it, not wanting to take their gaze away even for a second.

Lucy could slowly feel herself drifting out of consciousness. The movement of the watch was lulling her into a sort of trance. This wasn't going to end well, what was Seilah going to do once she was knocked out? Would she kill her, or would she kidnap her?

Seilah must have noticed her fading consciousness as well, the knife that had been pressed up against her neck had been pulled back slightly so that it was no longer resting on her skin. She had taken her head off of Lucy's shoulder as well, maybe her goal all along had been to knock her out and not hypnotize her.

Lucy was about to lose all consciousness when suddenly a loud cracking noise woke up all her senses. Taking her eyes off the watch she turned her attention to where the noise had come from and felt her heart squeeze with relief, Natsu was standing in her doorway.

The next few seconds passed quickly, so quickly that Seilah herself didn't have time to react. She had only been able to manage a strangled noise of surprise before a loud bang invaded Lucy's hearing. The arm around her neck fell away and the knife clattered to the floor.

Natsu took a step forward into the apartment, his gun still trained ahead of him with it pointing in the direction of the floor behind Lucy.

Lucy didn't want to look behind her despite her gnawing curiosity, she knew what she would find but she still didn't want to look for fear that Seilah would spring back up and slit her neck.

Natsu had pulled the trigger quick enough before Seilah could even consider using Lucy as a shield or slit her neck.

"Lucy" Natsu said, filling the stifling emptiness in the room as he crossed the space that separated the two of them, placing his hand on her shoulder he asked "I know this is a really stupid question but, are you alright?"

Lucy didn't know how to respond, she opened her mouth but nothing came out. For the first time that night she allowed herself to cry, to let the tears she had been holding back loose. She didn't bother trying to hold back the loud sobs, all she cared about at this point was that the knife was no longer pressed to her throat and that Natsu was here and she was safe.

Natsu didn't say anything, he just wordless nodded before wrapping his arms around her and pulling her against his chest.

She buried her face in the crook of his neck as she brought her arms up to wrap around his waist. For some reason, at that time and moment, Natsu's arms felt like the safest pace she could be.

"You're going to be alright Lucy" Natsu said as he patted her back. "I promise, I won't leave you again until this whole thing is over."


	12. Isolophobia (Fear of Being Alone)

The whole world seemed to be blurred, just spots of color, smudged shapes and red and blue flashing lights that seemed hazy and dull.

Lucy stood firmly rooted on the sidewalk outside of her apartment building; a blanket had been wrapped around her at one point, she thinks it must have been Natsu who had done it. She stood content with watching the blurs move about and listen to their incoherent, muffled talking.

Eventually the shock and fear began to reside, and soon things began to take focus once more.

The first thing to come into focus was a large black bag that was laying on the blacktop not too far from her. She had seen those bags enough in her career to know what it was, an irony of sorts that the first thing to come into focus would be the bag contained the person that had caused her all of this fear.

A voice in the back of her head whispers " _You almost died tonight._ "

Lucy wanted to swat that voice away but her gut just sank as the harsh reality finally hit her, she could have died tonight if it hadn't been for Natsu showing up so suddenly. She could have died tonight for doing something that wasn't her job; she should've just stayed in the lab. Investigating was part of Natsu's job, not her's.

"Now then" said a voice from behind her, causing her to jump slightly. "Lucy Heartfilia, correct?"

Lucy turned around to face the agent that was standing behind her. She opened her mouth to answer his question only to have her throat clench up. She gave him a nod instead.

"You're helping Natsu on the case he's on, right?" the agent asked as he took out a pad of paper and a pencil.

Lucy gave another nod.

The agent wrote something down before asking "So, exactly how involved are you in this case of his?"

That needed an answer, Lucy willed herself to talk. "I deal with the bodies." Her words came out scratchy, as if she had just inhaled smoke. One thing she knew for sure was that her throat felt like it was on fire.

"I see" the agent said as he scratched something down. "Anything else you might do? Like go with him talk to people, or investigate things for him?"

Luc shook her head. She wished this agent would just leave her alone; all she wanted to do was curl up in a ball and go to sleep and maybe drink a gallon of water to calm her throat.

"Okay then" the agent said as he looked at her from over the pad of paper. "Did you know the person who attacked you?"

"She told me her name was Seilah" Lucy said as the agent wrote more down on his pad.

"Okay Lucy" the agent said as he flipped his pad closed. "You're going to need to stay at another place until this case is over. It's too dangerous to let you stay here if the people after you know where you live. Do you have anywhere you could stay that's safe? Like a friend's house or your parent's?"

"Oh, well I guess I could stay with my father" Lucy said, her father had gotten released by the hospital earlier that night when they had been sure he was truly uninjured. He probably wouldn't mind her company. Plus his house was probably the safest place she could be with his fenced property and a security system.

"I don't think that's a good idea" came Natsu's voice.

Turning her attention to where Natsu's voice had come from, Lucy saw Natsu standing at the top of the steps.

"Oh?" asked the other agent, not even bothering to turn and look at Natsu. "And why not Dragneel?"

"It's case sensitive information" Natsu said as he made his way down the stairs. "And last time I checked Fullbuster, you're not on the case."

"Well guess what, I'm involved in the case of the potential murder of Lucy Heartfilia. So if you know something that could be detrimental to her safety then you have to tell me" the agent, apparently named Fullbuster which seemed to be a rather odd name to Lucy, snapped.

"Damn fine" Natsu said as he rolled his eyes. "One of the main suspects in the case is someone who works with Heartfilia's father. So if she isn't in her apartment then the next place he would look is at his house, which I'm sure wouldn't be too hard for him to break into."

"So you're telling one of your main suspects is a politician?" Fullbuster asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes" Natsu said all while Lucy tried to figure out where else she would stay. She didn't have many close friends except maybe for Levy and Mirajane. She really didn't want to intrude, but she didn't want to die either.

"You're fucked" Fullbuster said with chuckle.

"I know it must make you so happy to know I'm going to have to work my ass off for this case" Natsu said as he rolled his eyes at his coworker's apparent joy at his pain.

"Oh it does" Fullbuster said with a smirk before turning to Lucy. "Okay then, where else could you stay?"

"Ummm" Lucy said as she went through her small list of friends in her head as she tried to figure out which one she should call at one in the morning to sleep at their place.

"She can sleep at my place" Natsu said, breaking Lucy's thoughts.

"Really?" Gray asked as his brows went up to his hairline. "Is that appropriate?"

"Okay listen weirdo" Natsu said. "If she's at my place there's already less of a chance that they're going to attack, and even if they do I'm there with a gun so I think it's pretty safe. It'll just be up to Heartfilia."

The turned their attention to Lucy who was currently drawing a blank since she had just be invited to sleep at a guy's place, who she only knew through work. To make matters worse she had recently noticed that said guy looked almost looked borderline cute when he smiled.

"Oh, um, if it's not breaking any rules then that would be…nice. I mean, it means I wouldn't have to call any of my friends this late at night to see if I can stay with them" Lucy said as she struggled to find the right words. "I just have one question though; I won't be taken off the case right?"

Natsu and Fullbuster glanced at each other and then over at Lucy. In unison the two of them shrugged their shoulders.

"You two are a big help" Lucy huffed as she shook her head.

"I know" said a voice from behind Lucy, why couldn't anyone get in front of her tonight before talking to her ? "Why do I even keep you two?"

"Really Chief?" Fullbuster asked as Lucy turned around to see Makarov. "Isn't that a decision you need to make?"

"What decision do I have to make?" Makarov asked as he crossed his arms. "What are you two telling this poor girl?"

"Sir" Lucy said as Makarov looked over at her, "I was wondering if I was still on the case after tonight."

"Oh, yeah sure" Makarov said. "As long as you want to be I don't see no reason you can't be. Now Porlyusica might sing a different tune when she finds out what happened tonight since she had been so worried about something like this happening when you were put on this case. All I ask is that you're careful and you stick close to Natsu."

"Of course sir, thank you so much" Lucy said, at least she wasn't going to get kicked off the case, at least she hoped not.

"Gray could you go find something to do, I want to talk to these two in private" Makarov said as he gestured between Natsu and Lucy.

"Of course chief" Fullbuster, whose first name might actually be Gray, said before walking towards another agent.

"Okay you two, I'm going to make this quick so you can go get some sleep" Makarov said as he looked between the two of them. "Natsu, if your apartment at any point for the rest of the case somehow broken into then the two of you will be split up and sent to different locations. You'll also both be off the case if that ends up happening, okay?"

Lucy figured there was only one response to this question. "Okay."

"Okay" Natsu said before turning to Lucy and saying. "Why don't you go up and pack some stuff, just the necessities, we can come back tomorrow and get some more stuff if we need to."

"Got it" Lucy said with a nod before turning around and heading up to the apartment. She was hesitant to open the door, she was worried what she would find inside, and taking a deep breath she opened it up and walked inside. This was certainly going to be a long night.

/

"Well this is it" Natsu said as he threw opening his door, praying Zeref hadn't decided to stay and wait for him to get back. He knew there was no way he could explain why a crime boss was sitting leisurely in his apartment.

"Thanks again for letting me stay here" Lucy said as she walked inside. "I'll ask one of my friends tomorrow if I can stay with them."

"No need" Natsu said as he closed the door behind them. "It's not a problem."

It seemed like Zeref was scarce and Happy also seemed to be off somewhere, probably cowering. At least he could hope that Lucy wouldn't wake up in the middle of the night with Happy sleeping on her face, but he was a creature of habitat and probably wouldn't take to account that his owner wasn't sleeping in the bed.

"So, um, you can sleep in my bed and I'll just crash on the couch" Natsu said as he pointed over at the couch.

"Oh, I don't want to intrude-" Lucy began before Natsu cut her off.

"It's fine, besides, this way I'll most likely be the one dealing with any intruders first" Natsu said before pointing to the first door. "That's the bathroom" Natsu said before pointing to the next one "And that's where you'll be sleeping. If you find a cat just shoo him out, if not he might cause you problems."

"Okay, well thanks again, again I guess" Lucy said. "I think I'm just going to go to sleep, I'm pretty tired."

"No problem, I am too. Besides we'll have time in the morning to talk if you need to" Natsu said before placing his hand on his neck. "So, um goodnight."

"Goodnight" Lucy said before disappearing into his bedroom.

Falling down onto the couch, Natsu let out a sigh as he considered how he should play his cards for the next few days. He had to get this case wrapped up quickly so Lucy wouldn't be forced into a pseudo sort of hiding. He didn't honestly need to worry about anyone from Tartaros breaking into his apartment thanks to Zeref, even though he hated it that for once his damn overprotectiveness was helping him; out in the field it was a different story.

There was also what Makarov had talked to him about after Lucy had gone up to her apartment. One sentence still ringing clear in his head, _"I don't know what kind of secrets you're hiding from me Natsu, but I don't like them and I think they may end up costing you big one day."_

Makarov had known his old man which in turn meant he knew a little about Natsu's life before he was adopted. But all he knew was the little stuff, like how he had been living on the streets before Igneel adopted him. He didn't know he had been living with a brother and he certainly didn't know what they had been doing before Igneel found him. Plus what he had been doing even after he had been adopted.

He had spent so long keeping all of that under wraps but even though he hated to admit it, he knew one day it would all come crumbling down on him.

That night neither Natsu nor Lucy got much sleep.

/

"Are you sure you're fine with looking over Seilah's body?" Natsu asked, concerned how quickly Lucy had agreed to examine the body of the person who had threatened to kill her the night before.

"Yes Natsu" Lucy said with a small sigh, she was thankful that he was concerned but she wished he would believe her when she said she was fine. Even if she wasn't.

"Okay, if you say so" Natsu said as he followed her up the steps of Magnolia's History Museum. "But if you start to feel uncomfortable or overwhelmed just call me, and we can get someone else to look over the body."

"Seilah's body is part of this case, so it would be best if it was someone who was working on the case that looked over her body" Lucy said as she reached the top of the steps, turning around to face Natsu she tried to calm his nerves one last time. "I'll be fine Natsu, but if I have any problems I will call you."

Natsu hesitated a bit before answering "Okay Heartfilia, I trust you. Let's hope you're able to find something from Seilah's body."

"Yeah, let's hope" Lucy said, trying her best to sound enthusiastic even though when she thought about looking at Seilah's body it caused her stomach to twist up into knots.

"Oh before I go" Natsu said as he took out his phone. "The identity of the chopped up body was found yesterday. The guy's name was Marcus Tempester, and I'm guessing his identity in Tartaros was the hit man Tempester. It looks like each side is now starting to focus on getting rid of the strongest players for each side."

"Is that good?" Lucy asked.

"I suppose, but only two of the strongest members have been killed. One was killed by one of Jackal's men and the other was killed by me. So it isn't exactly getting rid of the trouble of hunting down the members, but it could end up being useful" Natsu said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Well, I'm going to head inside and start looking over Seilah's body" Lucy said, giving a Natsu a small wave she turned around and headed inside before he could say anything else to her. She needed some sort of quiet; Natsu had hardly stopped talking that morning, most likely to keep Lucy's mind of the events from the night before.

It didn't seem like those memories were going to disappear anytime soon. Whenever she had been about to fall asleep the feeling of cool metal against her neck would jolt her awake as she reached up to her neck, searching for the knife. She had barely been able to get any sleep last night, and hopefully it wouldn't interfere with her work.

Swiping in, she pulled on her lab coat before heading over to her workspace. Over the past week the amount of examination tables had grown on the platform, and a new one had been added. Even if the body was covered Lucy still felt sick to her stomach, would she really be able to face Seilah, even if it was her corpse. At least they had taken her out of the body bag; it was one less interaction with the body.

Taking a deep breath she stepped up next to the examination table. Her hand shook slightly as she pulled back the sheet to reveal Seilah's face, her eyes were still open.

Lucy held back panic rising to her throat as she pulled on a pair of gloves. She hesitantly put her hand over Seilah's eyes as she shut them, she couldn't do this if she could feel those eyes boring into her skin.

Pulling the rest of the sheet back she found that Seilah still was clothed. At least she could distract herself by examining Seilah's clothes rather than having to keep looking at her face, or the hands that had pressed a knife to her-

"No, no, no stop thinking about it" Lucy muttered to herself as she looked over Seilah's clothes. Nothing stood out, she was dressed all in black and had a few holders for, what Lucy figured, must be knifes. She had a few pockets so Lucy figured looking through them might bring some sort of evidence, or at least it would give her something to do.

The first pocket only produced an empty candy wrapper and a few coins. The second one had nothing in it. The third had another pocket watch in it, the fourth pocket though held something promising. Pulling out the contents of the fourth pocket she brought out what looked to be an old flip phone. It was scratched and beat up around the edges but she figured a gang member might not need a nice phone for what they do.

Since it was, luckily, a flip phone she didn't need a password to get into it. Flipping it open, the screen lit up to reveal a default background.

Going into messages Lucy found only one message. It was from an unknown number and simply read " _Target: L. Heartfilia, will get in touch later to discuss options. If the agent shows up during the elimination use the girl against him. When you're done report to the normal location for your payment._ "

Lucy felt herself go numb; it looked like she would have died no matter what last night if Natsu hadn't come bursting in. Doing her best to keep her breathing regulated she focused on what she should do next, looking up the number of the person who had sent the message to Seilah.

Writing the phone number down, she left the bodies and headed towards the nearest computer. Levy and her shared one due to all the times they had wanted to look something up and Porlyusica hadn't been in her office to look it up for them.

Typing the number into the computer she came up with nothing, literally. It seems that the message had been sent by a disposable phone, looks like they weren't going to get a lead from that.

Opening the phone again she went through her contacts only to find nothing before going into her recent calls. It looked like someone had tried to call her at two that morning. Writing down the phone number from that call she looked that one up as well.

As she waited for the results to load she prayed she would get something, anything that pointed some type of guilt towards Marde. The results finished loading and Lucy was overjoyed to see actual results even if it was a bit odd.

Apparently Seilah had gotten a call from one of the offices at city hall at two in the morning, which meant Marde could have called Seilah from his office phone, but why would he be at his office at two in the morning?

Opening up city hall's homepage she once again went to the link that said "Contact your Politician's" and looked up Marde's number. Comparing it to the number that had called Seilah; she felt her heart jump with joy. Something good had finally happened, Marde had called Seilah and hopefully that would be enough to bring him in for questioning. It had to be.

As Lucy picked up her phone to call Natsu to tell him the news she couldn't help but pause for a second. Why would Marde be so careless and call Seilah by that number? Surely he wouldn't slip up like that, but she figured everyone had to mess up at some point.

Pressing on Natsu's contact, she pressed her phone to her ear as she waited for him to pick up.

"Heartfilia?" Natsu answered, concern in his voice, he must have figured that the reason she was calling him had to do with Seilah. "Is everything alright? What are you calling for?"

"I found something that should be able to bring Marde in" Lucy said. "I'm heading over to the FBI building to give it to you. I should be there in about ten minutes."

"Okay, but what exactly did you fin-"Lucy hung up before he could finish asking his question.

/

"So what did you find exactly?" Natsu asked once Lucy had appeared beside his desk. "You hung up before I could finish asking."

"Sorry" Lucy said, she had felt a little bit bad about it after she had done it but there was no point feeling sorry about it now. "I was just in a hurry to get here and show it to you."

"Uh huh" Natsu said, as if he suspected another reason. "Okay then, show it to me."

Taking the phone out of her pocket she handed it to him. "I found this phone in Seilah's pocket. It doesn't have much in it except for one missed call and one text message."

Natsu flipped open the phone and began to look through it. "Did you look up the numbers?"

"Yes" Lucy said. "But the number that sent the text belonged to what I think must've been a disposable phone. But the missed phone call belonged to a trackable number."

"So I presume you know who was in touch with Seilah then?" Natsu asked as he closed the phone.

"Yes, it's the reason I came over here rather than telling you over the phone" Lucy said as she watched Natsu place the phone on his desk. "The number that called Seilah belonged to a phone at city hall."

Natsu's face lit up the minute he heard the words city hall. "Wait, so the person who called her was-"

"Marde's office, which in turn means it must've been Marde who called her since who else would be in his office at two in the morning?" Lucy said, cutting Natsu off.

"Heartfilia" Natsu said as he stood up from his seat. "I think we have enough to get a warrant for Marde's office, hell we should have enough to at least bring him in for questioning!"

"So what's next?" Lucy asked, was she going to get sent back to the lab to keep looking over the bones? She had asked Levy to do the autopsy for Seilah before she had left; the more she thought about it the more she realized she couldn't look at Seilah, at least not in flesh form. If she needed to look at the bones she could, but she couldn't do anything while she could still feel those eyes on her.

"We're going to show this to the chief" Natsu said as he picked the phone back up.

"We?" Lucy asked as she pointed at herself, she had figured she was going to be sent back to the lab and not be a part in bringing Marde to justice or whatever.

"Yeah, I mean, I already sent Makarov the picture and recording of Marde and Franmalth. Now while the phone call from Marde's office might help get a warrant to search it, it's not enough. But if we show him the picture of the gun and say you were in his office because of your dad and you noticed a drawer was open, you see where I'm going with this?" Natsu asked, taking a breath between his long winded explanation.

"Yeah, I understand. I'm going to be used as a witness or whatever" Lucy said, feeling slightly bad she was going to be lying but if it helped bring Marde in then it shouldn't be too wrong.

"Exactly" Natsu said as he headed towards Makarov's office with Lucy at his heels. "First we'll show him the phone and ask if we can bring him in for questioning. Then you'll show him the picture you took and tell him the story and then I'll ask if I can apply for a search warrant."

"Okay I think I understand what we're about to do" Lucy said as they stopped outside of Makarov's office.

"Great" Natsu said as he knocked on the door. "Because there is no turning back now." Opening the door the two of them stepped into the room. Natsu closed the door behind them and then turned his attention to Makarov.

Makarov looked up at them from over his paperwork before asking "What do you two want?"

"We want to bring Marde Geer in for questioning and get a search warrant for his office" Natsu said cutting straight to the point.

"I see" Makarov said as he set the piece of paper he had been looking at back on his desk. Leaning forward and folding his hands together he asked "So what do you have to backup these claims?"

"This phone should be enough to bring him in for questioning on the attempted murder of Lucy Heartfilia" Natsu said as he held up the phone. "Heartfilia found it in Seilah's pocket."

"I see" Makarov said. "But what evidence does it have?"

"A missed call on this phone was from Marde's office at city hall" Lucy said hoping to speed it up instead of spending ten minutes going over evidence.

"I see, that is suspicious that Marde would have her number and call her. Still it's odd he would call her from his work phone. This is enough to bring him in for questioning. I'll send someone to bring him in since Scarlet is the one that's going to interrogate him, correct?" Makarov asked as he picked up his phone.

"Yes sir that is correct" Natsu said. "As for the search warrant, Lucy is the one who is going to have to explain it."

Lucy froze up for a second as Makarov turned his eyes to her. She felt Natsu nudge her arm slightly as he whispered "The picture."

"Oh yes" Lucy said as she fumbled to pull the phone out of her pocket. Opening it up to the picture of the gun she showed it to Makarov as she began her story. "I was in Marde's office looking for something for my father, who works at city hall, and I noticed that one of his drawers were open. When I went over to close it I noticed something shiny and metallic inside so I looked inside and found a gun. Natsu looked up the serial number I believe, but he never told me if he found anything of it."

Makarov nodded before turning to Natsu who said "The gun wasn't under his name; rather it belonged to our chopped up victim in the park."

"I see" Makarov said with a nod. "Well I suppose it is against the law for there to be a gun in city hall, so I will allow you to apply for a permit Dragneel. I suppose you want to oversee the search as well."

"That is correct sir" Natsu said.

"Fine, as long as you behave" Makarov said as Natsu did poorly in hiding his happiness.

Natsu was turning around, but not before he grabbed Lucy's phone, and the two were heading toward the door when Makarov spoke.

"I suppose the two of you are rather happy" Makarov said, drawing their attention back to him. "You're about to bring in your first suspect, I wish you luck."

"Thank you chief" Natsu said with a curt nod before heading out the door.

Lucy hovered for a few seconds before giving Makarov a quick "Thanks" before she headed after Natsu.

"We're going to do this Heartfilia" Natsu said as he practically shook with excitement. "We're going to nail Marde. Erza just needs to keep him occupied so we can find something in his office that points towards him being part of Tartaros."

"That's great" Lucy said, and she was generally happy that they were about to tie up this case. Jackal was still out there but if they managed to arrest Marde then they would be halfway to their goal. But that means the bodies might stop showing up once the leader was gone, and Lucy wasn't sure if she really wanted that to happen if it meant she would be sent back to looking at ancient remains.

"Hey, why don't you watch the interrogation and help Erza out" Natsu said as he stopped suddenly at the elevator.

"Really?" Lucy asked "Bu-but what would I do?"

"You'd wear an earpiece and if Erza starts to struggle or have any problems you help her out. I mean, you know more about this case then her and since I won't be here to help her out it makes sense that you would help her" Natsu said as he pressed on the button to go down. "The interrogation room is the second door down from the elevator. The first door is where you'll be. Jut wait there for a red headed women and tell her I sent you to help her."

"Okay then" Lucy said as the elevator opened.

"Well then Heartfilia" Natsu said as he stepped in. "It's been a fun time working with you."

Before Lucy could say anything back to him the elevator doors closed with a ding. She stood by the doors as she let everything soak in; Natsu was talking as if the entire case would be closed up today. But they still needed to find Jackal, just what was he planning to do?

But that wasn't what she needed to worry about right now. She needed to get ready to help this Erza Scarlet, or Scarlet Erza, out in investigating Marde Geer. They had to make sure he didn't leave until they found something that pointed to him being a part of Tartaros.


	13. Sciophobia (Fear of Shadows)

"Who exactly are you?"

Lucy jumped in surprise at the unknown voice that had come from behind her. Turning around she came face to face with who she figured must be a descendant from one of those warrior goddesses or something.

The woman in front of her was intimidating to say the least. She had to be at least six feet tall and the heels she was wearing had to add at least four inches. Her red hair was tied up in a neat bun and the expression she wore was all business. Based on the size of her arms Lucy figured this women could bench-press her, wait, she had red hair which Natsu said belonged to..

"Are you Erza?" Lucy asked, completely forgetting about the question the other woman had asked her.

The woman raised an eyebrow as she said "Yes, I'm Erza Scarlet, but that doesn't answer the question I asked you. Who are you?"

"Oh, I'm Lucy Heartfilia. I'm working with Natsu on his case and he wanted me to help you with the interrogation."

"I see" Erza said as she looked Lucy up and down. "You're the scientist right?"

"Yes, I look over the bodies" Lucy said as she twiddled her fingers, this woman had an imposing air to her that made Lucy feel three inches tall when standing near her.

"I figured" Erza said. "Well I'm not one to turn down help so I suppose I'll accept your offer."

While her help hadn't exactly been an offer, Lucy sure as hell wasn't going to tell Erza otherwise. "That's great, though Natsu didn't really explain why he's making you do this interrogation for him. I would've figured he'd want to do it himself considering how…thorough he is." Lucy had decided it was best to make conversation with Erza instead of standing around awkwardly and thinking about how Erza could probably snap her like a twig if she wanted to. It was probably best to befriend the women rather than shying away from her.

"While it is definitely true that Natsu is very intense when it comes to his job, for some odd reason he has always preferred for me to conduct his investigations" Erza said as she pushed down a pair of glass that had been previously perched on her head down onto her nose. "He claims I'm more intimidating then him and could make a hardened criminal cry."

"Oh" Lucy said, slightly taken back, apparently her previous notion that Erza was descended from a warrior goddess was most likely true.

"Yes I know, he makes me sound like some kind of demon" Erza said with a huff as crossing her arms, she suddenly didn't seem as scary.

"I'm sure he doesn't mean it like that" Lucy said; glad to see that Erza's edges weren't so sharp since she had started talking to her.

"He's called me the demon interrogator before" Erza said, her edges hardening once again as she stared hard at the air in front of her. Natsu should count his blessings that this woman hadn't killed him yet, or at least hadn't snapped him like a twig.

"Ah, well, I'm sure Natsu didn't mean it like that" Lucy said as she tried to come up with something to calm Erza down before she was put in a small room with their suspect , it probably wouldn't go well if she was too pissed off at Natsu to actually carry out the interrogation. "Maybe he meant it like you interrogate demons." Lucy was grasping at straws now and Erza had to know this as well.

"Really?" Erza asked, her anger simmering off. "You really think so?"

"Yeah of course" Lucy wasn't sure how Natsu had the actually balls to pull off calling Erza a demon, but she was going to ask him after she punched him for making her help Erza work through her temperament issues.

"You're really nice Lucy, do you know that?" Erza asked her as she pulled her into a bone crushing hug.

Lucy was honestly beginning to wonder if Erza was really this scary interrogator with how many different moods she was just gone through in the span of two minutes.

"Thanks Erza, that's really nice" Lucy said as she patted the other women's back. "But um, do you think you could let me go? I think we should go over a plan before we head in."

"Oh that is a good idea" Erza said as she let Lucy out of her iron grip. "I'm thinking that perhaps I start off by giving him a sort of quiet treatment before telling him that he knows why we brought him in. Then I'll ask him about the call he made to Seilah's phone before showing him it. Then I'll ask him about the purchase he made at a gas station outside of town, which by the way was a disposable phone, and then I'll show him the test message-"

Lucy nodded along with Erza even though she soon began to tune it out once she brought up the fact that Marde had purchased a disposable phone. While it's not like that could back up anything, it did make something squirm in Lucy's stomach. Would she be able to look at Marde when he entered the room? Or would she feel sick to her stomach like she was when she looked at Seilah, would she even be of any help to Erza if she couldn't bear to look at the man who ordered for her death?

"Don't you agree Lucy?"

Erza's question brought Lucy back to reality as she looked up at her. She hadn't heard a single word Erza had said in the past minute but she would just have to agree. "Yes, that sounds like a great plan."

"I'm glad you think so" Erza said as she clasped her hands together. "If I need any help I'll signal you, which means I'll just look over at the glass that separates the rooms. If Natsu calls with any helpful information just tell me, although he might call me rather than you." Erza tapped at an earpiece she had on which Lucy figured was how they were going to communicate.

"So am I going to talk into a microphone or something that's connected to your earpiece or what?" Lucy asked, moving the conversation away from the long descriptions that apparently all the agents liked to give before doing anything.

"Oh that's right" Erza said as she took out the earpiece in her ear. "The one I had in was for my phone, I'll have to get a different one so you can talk to me. I guess that means I'll also have to get my phone as well."

"Okay then, you go do that and I'll just wait here" Lucy said, Erza was beginning to come off as a bit different then Lucy had predicted but it made her more human than the image Lucy had begun to have of Erza in her head. Leaning up against the wall Lucy watched as Erza left the hallway before focusing her attention on her surroundings.

She had only been in the building a grand total of four times and neither of those times did she take any time to take in her surroundings, not that there was much to take in. The walls were plain other than the few simple paintings that had been placed sporadically on the walls as if the person in charge of decorating the building had just been handed typical paintings found in any office and had been told to just throw them on the walls.

The rug that was placed in front of the elevators was a simple oval shape and had the agency's symbol on it. There was little else in the hallway type room though it might be more like a type of foyer or a waiting room type area. It definitely didn't give off any warm feelings; though Lucy figured it wasn't supposed to since potential criminals were brought through this place daily.

Erza came back quicker than Lucy had expected, popping up behind her with little warning before she began to speak to Lucy. "Are you ready to set up? I've been told that Marde should be here in about five minutes."

"Oh, of course" Lucy said, recovering from the sudden shock of Erza's voice before she was being escorted into the little room adjacent to the interrogation room.

/

Marde had only been brought in seconds ago and from Lucy's spot behind the glass she could see that he wasn't fazed at all. He was sitting casually in one of the metal chairs in the room, looking at his nails as he glanced over at the door every few seconds.

After he had been sitting alone for a minute or so Erza opened the door, well more like she slammed it open but that just seemed to be how she opened doors.

Erza closed the door swiftly behind her before walking over to Marde. Standing in front of him with only the table to separate them, Erza threw down a file onto the table with a soft thump.

"Marde Geer" Erza said as she looked him up and down, her gaze cold and hard. Lucy felt a shiver of fear crawl up her spine as she watched the women. Lucy would soon realize quickly why Natsu had wanted Erza to interrogate Marde for him.

"Yes, that is my name" Marde said simply as he brought his attention away from his nails and up to Erza's face, not even flinching when he met her eyes.

"I must say Geer" Erza said as she placed her hands firmly down onto the table as she stared down Marde. "It's quite brave of you to have not called in a lawyer, perhaps you have a reason why?"

Marde sat back in his chair, folding his hands onto the table he said "Well Miss, I am a politician who is running for mayor; I don't want to stir up any malicious rumors if I were to call in my lawyer while I'm at the FBI agency. Plus, this is all one big misunderstanding; I'll be out of here soon once you realize you've wrongfully accused me of something I didn't do."

"So you know why we brought you in then?"

"Of course" Marde said as he crossed his legs. "You think I'd let you bring me without knowing the charges your bringing against me?"

"So you understand that you could be potentially charged with attempted murder?" Erza said, not letting her glare waver what-so ever as she kept her eyes firmly on Marde.

"No, I believe I was brought in for something to do with being a possible witness in the attempted murder of Lucy Heartfilia" Marde said, his voice smooth, not missing a single beat. He seemed to be unaffected by Erza's presence.

"Is that what you think you're in here for?"

"I'm pretty sure that is what I'm in here for. Should I be telling you what I know about your suspect, or what my relationship is with the victim's father, or-"

"I want to know why you were called the perp from your office at city hall, at two this morning. A little suspicious, don't you think?" Erza said as her hands left the table, her eyes didn't leave him though.

"I suppose it would come across rather odd, but how can you be so sure I was the one who called this person?" Marde asked as he followed Erza with his eyes. She had taken to walking around the table, circling him like an animal stalking their prey.

Lucy noticed Erza falter slightly as she tried to think of a way to counter Marde's claim, Lucy luckily knew how.

Pressing down on the microphone's power button she spoke into it. "City hall has an alarm system as well as a night guard watching the place. First someone would have to get passed a guard who is watching cameras all around the perimeter. Even if they did get pass the guard they'd have to get through the alarm system which only the people who work there know how to disarm."

Erza gave a small nod in Lucy's direction before turning her attention back to Marde. "To get into city hall at night you have to get through a guard, cameras and a security system. You could easily get passed a guard since you work there, and you know the password to disarm the alarm system. If anything I think it would make sense that it was you who made this call. The only question I have is why?"

"How can you be so sure I was there this morning? Do you have anything that supports that? Have you even bothered to consult the guard that was on duty last night to ask?" Marde asked, easily listing off questions that rebutted Erza's arguments. He was prepared for these kind of things.

Erza choose to ignore those questions but looked towards Lucy's direction. She gave a small nod at her before turning her glare back at Marde. "Can I ask you about a recent purchase you made?"

Marde gave Erza a pointed look but choose not to mention anything about her ignoring his questions. "I suppose, though you might find it rather boring. I bought one dozen eggs, a loaf of wheat bread, a head of-"

"I'm not asking for your grocery list Geer, I want to know about your recent purchase of a disposable phone which you bought at a gas station just outside of town." As Erza grilled Marde, Lucy pulled out her phone and dialed the only number she could think of. Luckily they picked up after the first two rings.

"Heartfilia" came Natsu's voice, muffled slightly by the background noise. "What are you calling me for? Is Erza giving you trouble or something?"

"No, she's in with Marde right now but we ran into a little bump in the whole claim of him calling Seilah from his office this morning. If you're at city hall can you try to get in touch with the night guard and ask him if Marde went into city hall last night or morning or whatever?" Lucy asked as she glanced over at Erza who seemed to be showing Marde the picture they have of him buying the phone.

"Uh, yeah, sure I'll go down and ask. I'll call you once I get the answer."

"Thanks" Lucy said before quickly hanging up and turning her attention back to Erza and Marde.

"Do you still have the phone or do you at least remember the number that went with it?" Erza asked, she still hadn't backed down at all. She was still staring Marde down, Marde didn't seem too affected thought.

"Sorry, no to both of those questions" Marde said as he offered her a small smile "I'm afraid I can't be of much help."

"Well it's a good thing I found out the serial number of that phone then, huh?" Erza said. She sat down for the first time and stared coolly across the table at Marde who for the first time was showing some sort of emotion, panic.

"And how did you manage to do that?" Marde asked, a slight waver entering his voice.

"Well first I called the gas station that you bought it from and asked them to give me all the serial numbers of their most recent stock of burner phones that had been bought. One of them matched the serial number that belonged to the phone that texted Seilah. I then proceeded to go through all of them, which wasn't much, only about five, and I found that only one wasn't on anymore was the one that had sent the text. Now all the other phones I was able to find the owner of, except you weren't the owner of any of those phones that were on. Do you see what I'm getting at?" Erza leaned forward, a cold smile on her face as she stared down Marde who was beginning to fidget ever so slightly.

"So, what if I contacted this person twice! You haven't even told me who this person is that I was contacting according to you" Marde said, anger flaring in his voice. He was beginning to get defensive.

"Well this person that you contacted twice was known as Seilah and she was the one who attempted to murder Lucy Heartfilia last night" Erza said, her eyes hardening as she kept her gaze on Marde, trailing his every move. "Plus, the text you sent to her on your burner phone suggests something completely different."

Erza pushed the picture of the text across the table to him. As Marde read over the text his face paled slightly.

"How can you be so sure that this was me though?" Marde asked, trying to regain his cool exterior.

"It was your phone, it's a little hard to push the blame onto someone else in this situation" Erza said as she got up once again.

Standing behind Marde she asked "Tell me what that text says."

Marde sat silently as he stared down at the table, he was avoiding Erza's gaze now.

"I see" Erza said as she let out a sigh. Lucy hadn't been sure what she was going to do next but it surely wasn't what she did. Erza pressed her hand to the back of Marde's head before pushing his face down until it was centimeters away from the paper.

"A girl almost died last night and you're just going to sit there like a lump! This is human lives were talking about here, and you just went and asked for someone to murder that girl for you like you were hiring someone to do yard work! Do you have such little regard for human life, or did you just not want to get your hands dirty?!" Erza snarled as she kept Marde's face down despite his efforts against her.

"This has to be illegal for you to do" he said back, hiding his fear poorly.

"It's illegal to murder people but that sure as hell didn't stop you huh?" Erza said as she put her head right next to Marde's. "Just give it up Geer" Erza hissed into his ear. "We have you for attempted murder of Lucy Heartfilia. All the court needs to see is this text and they'd convict you. We don't even need to know if you made that call to Seilah."

"Are you sure that be enough evidence to combat my lawyer? I have the public on my side, they wouldn't believe that one small text would be all that is needed to convict me of such a thing" Marde spat back; once again he was gaining back his levelheadedness.

Lucy was so focused on Erza that she almost didn't hear her phone going off, almost.

Reaching over she grabbed it and checked the caller id before answering, it was Natsu.

"Hey Heartfilia, I have some good news" Natsu said right after Lucy had accepted the call.

"I do hope it has to do with Marde being in his office at two in the morning" Lucy said as she glanced back over at Erza and Marde. Erza had released her grip from Marde's head and the later was glaring at the other pointedly.

"Why, yes it does" Natsu said. "The guard let Marde in at around one thirty this morning and let him out a little after two. There is also a record of someone deactivating the alarm system for a little over a half an hour as well, between the hours of one thirty-five and two ten."

"Great, thanks Natsu. I'll tell Erza" Lucy said before hanging up and switching over to the mic. She relayed the information she had just heard to Erza as the women gave a slight nod before turning to Marde.

"We just received records of you in fact being at city hall last night during the time the call was made from your office. Not only do we have records of someone turning off the alarm system, but we also have a guard that let you in" Erza said as she circled back round the table to look at Marde. "As far as I can tell Geer, you have a big fat red guilty written across your face. If I were you I'd start calling a lawyer to prepare for your trial, or you could do this the easy way."

Erza sat down across from Marde and continued her glare at him. Marde shifted uncomfortably in his seat before he opened his mouth.

"What is the easy way?"

The corners of Erza's mouth turned up in a smirk "I thought you'd ask that. The easy way is quite simple in fact. You simply confess to your crime and we can skip the trial all together."

"Isn't the whole point of a plea bargain admitting guilt to a lesser crime, not the one you actually committed?"

"I didn't say anything about a plea bargain. If you confess your trial would barely last since you've already pleaded guilty. Add in these two contacts you had with the women who attempted to murder Lucy Heartfilia and I think it be more than enough to convince a jury you called for Lucy Heartfilia's murder." Erza steeled her gaze as she watched Marde steel up as he went over his options.

"You have no motive for this attempted murder" Marde said as he returned Erza's gaze. "So why on earth would I call for her murder. She's the daughter of one of my colleagues no less."

"That means nothing, if anything it would bring forth a motive" Erza said. She sat across from Marde once again and placed her head in her hands as she gazed at him coolly. "Jude Heartfilia has no plans of supporting you in your race for mayor. Even though he and your opponent are known enemies he'd rather support her than you. Ever since he's announced that he won't support you, your ratings have dropped, putting your opponent in the lead."

"So you're saying I could've done this due to my ratings dropping? But let me ask you this, why not kill Jude, why his daughter?"

"Killing Jude wouldn't change his opposition to you, but killing his daughter would make him vulnerable. You could've appealed to this part of him to convince him to support you instead. I hear the other candidate hasn't spoken much about organized crime, but you on the other hand have been talking about it more and more recently."

"That seems like a bit of a stretch to me" Marde said. "I think your grasping at straws agent."

"Is that so?" Erza said. Before Erza could say anything else her phone began to ring.

"Answer your phone Agent" Marde said with a sly grin as if he knew he was going to win this game. "I wouldn't want you to miss an important call because of me."

Erza sent Marde one last glare before answering her phone.

/

They had already torn through all of Marde's bookshelf and files but they still hadn't found anything. Natsu had looked in the drawer that Lucy had told him about, and while he did find the picture he found the hidden compartment empty. Marde must have taken it with him that morning when he had called Seilah.

The picture that had been covering the panel intrigued Natsu though, he couldn't exactly pinpoint what it was about it but something was familiar about that picture. Natsu had slipped the picture out of the frame and had put it in his pocket, just in case it could be used against Marde.

Looking through the room again Natsu was beginning to panic as he tried to come up with something, he wasn't going to leave this office until he found something incriminating against Marde.

"Sir" came the voice of one of the investigators that have been helping him search the room. "We've been told that if we can't find something in five minutes that we'll have to leave."

"Okay, thanks" Natsu said as his eyes scanned over everything. As his eyes stopped at the bookshelves he remembered something Lucy had told him earlier, something about hidden compartments in them.

He stood closer to the bookshelves and looked them up and down for any sort of seam or crack that could suggest a hidden panel. Running his hand over the wood he looked at the bottom of the bookshelves. They appeared to be solid wood at the bottom that looked to be about foot and a half.

Crouching down he knocked on the wood, and surprise, surprise, it was hollow. Running his hands along the side of the wood he found a small indent on the side. Pulling at it lightly he felt the wood move slightly. Pulling harder he pulled off the thick wood panel that had been covering the bottom.

Natsu felt his stomach drop slightly at the sight in front of him before feeling overflowing sense of relief. He had found something, and that was good. In front of Natsu was had to be about ten guns all stored in the hidden compartment, and he could tell by just looking at them that half had to be illegal.

"Hey guys" Natsu said as he turned towards the other investigators "Check all the bookshelves for hidden panels."

A few of them sent him some questioning looks but once they noticed the hole in what they thought had been a solid object they changed their minds.

By the time they had pulled off a panel on every bookshelf they had found a whole lot of firearms, most of which were either illegal or obtained illegally, and a whole lot of drugs. While Natsu hadn't bothered figuring out what kind of drugs Marde had been storing in his office, he knew in such quantities that even if any of it was legal Marde would have broken the law on how much you could carry.

Another thing they had found was a manila folder that had been slipped behind one of the piles of drugs they had found.

The folder's contents hadn't been anything amazing or something that outright said Marde was the leader of Tartaros. What it did have in it was all of Tartaros's dealings with gangs outside the city or to be more precise, it showed all the shipments of drugs that Tartaros sent to other areas to be sold through other drug rings.

The folder showed all the money Tartaros has earned and lost through these so called investments as well as all the discussions between the bosses of these rings and Marde Geer. While it didn't say he was the leader it sure as hell implied a whole lot of involvement in the gang.

Taking out his phone he dialed Erza's number, he needed to tell her everything he found before Marde walked out of that interrogation room.

/

Erza gave one final nod before hanging up, she turned back towards Marde and was about to open her mouth when Marde spoke.

"So detective, who was calling you?"

Erza hardened her gaze at Marde once again before answering him. "An agent named Natsu Dragneel."

At Natsu's name Marde's demeanor changed slightly, his smile faltered slightly and something unknown flashed in his eyes.

"Is that so?" Marde asked, but it sounded more like a statement then a question.

"Yes, and he found some very interesting things hidden in your office" Erza said as she sat back down. Keeping her gaze leveled at Marde she asked "Do you know what we found?"

"I don't know detective, why don't you tell me?" Marde asked, his smile was gone now.

"About thirty illegal guns were found as well as a large amount of drugs. We're guessing a mixture of cocaine, stimulants and one agent guessed there is even some designer drugs as well as LSD mixed up in there as well. Also it had an interesting folder that holds a lot of information on the gang Tartaros' distribution of all their drugs. Plus it also has all the conversations between you and other drug rings." Erza look at Marde through the slits of her eyes as her mouth pulled up into a smirk. "I'm afraid we've got you Geer, all I'm going to say to you know is that I hope you have a hell of a lawyer."

Marde gritted his teeth as his jaw tightened. Fear was beginning to show on his features.

"Though you could always just confess."

"To what accusation?" Marde growled, his hands were shaking now.

"Why not both?" Erza said, leaning forwards, the smile on her face growing. "It would make everyone's job much easier if you just confessed to both crimes."

Marde's hand has turned into fists as he glared down Erza. "Would you like it in writing?"

"That would be preferable" Erza said as she slid him a piece of paper and a pen.

Lucy watched as Marde began to scratch something down on the paper. She couldn't believe that Erza had actually gotten Marde to confess to everything. But he had been backed into a corner; it made sense he would just confess to avoid a public trial.

Marde slid the paper back to Erza before crossing his arms and sitting back in the chair.

Erza read over the piece of paper, her face scrunching up once she reached the end of is. Looking up at Marde she looked like she was about ready to reach across the table and throttle him.

"There's only one confession on here" Erza said, keeping her voice emotionless despite the aura that just radiated anger coming off of her.

"You're correct, I'm taking a plea bargaining route of sort" Marde said with a shrug. "I confessed to the attempted murder of Lucy Heartfilia. If you want to get me for conspiring for Tartaros you're going to need to drag me to court."

"You do realize that no matter how good of a lawyer you get you won't be able to escape innocent from that charge. There's far too much against you" Erza said as she looked between Marde and the confession as is she was hoping that this was one big joke.

"Oh I know" Marde said simply, his calm and cool aura returning once again. "But I'm not going to just surrender to you; I wouldn't want to disappoint Zeref."

Erza's eyes widened at what Marde just said. "You just confessed to knowing Zeref."

"Well I'm not ashamed of it, he is my mentor after all" Marde said with a smirk on his face, happy that he had managed to leave Erza speechless.

"Is that really all he is to you?" came a familiar voice. Lucy jumped in surprise at the new voice; she hadn't noticed anyone entering the other room.

All three of them turned their attention towards the direction of the voice to see the door of the interrogation room open with Natsu standing in it.

He closed the door behind him as Lucy was reeling from his surprise appearance. He had pretty much told her he wasn't going to be a part of the interrogation of Marde but here he was. Perhaps he had finished searching Marde's office earlier than expected and had showed up to see if Erza needed any help.

"If you're trying to imply that I have some sort of romantic relationship with him then I can tell you-" Marde began before Natsu cut him off with a wave of his hand.

"Oh, no,no,no I didn't mean to imply that" Natsu said with an awkward laugh as he slipped his hand into his pocket. "I guess I should've been clearer." Natsu pulled something out of his pocket and placed on the table in front of Marde.

Marde took one look at the picture before his eyes widened and he was turning towards Natsu for answers. "Why do you have this picture?"

"Well I found it while we were searching your office. It was an interesting picture" Natsu said as he nodded towards Erza. She nodded back and got out of the chair, Natsu quickly took her place and Erza leaned up against a nearby wall. She still refused to take her eyes off of Marde.

"I don't see what's so interesting about it?" Marde said as his eyes stayed glue to the picture. Lucy was trying to get a look at it when Natsu spoke again.

"Something about this picture sparked an interest with me, something about it was familiar" Natsu said before pointing at something in the picture. "This is you correct?"

Marde shoulder's stiffened, but he answered the question. "Yes, it was taken about twenty-five years ago. I still don't see what this has to do with this whole thing."

Lucy finally was able to see the picture and realized it was the one that had been hiding the panel. It had been an odd picture to her, something had told her to take a picture of it but after she had left the office she hadn't seen the whole point of even taking that picture. It looked like something about it was important.

"Can you tell me who the other person is in this picture?" Natsu asked, folding his hands as he kept his eyes trained on Marde.

"It's one of my cousins" Marde said simply, taking his eyes off the picture for the first time since it had been placed on the table.

"Is that so?" Natsu said with a smile. "I didn't realize Zeref was your cousin."

"Wha-what, how did you know that was him?" Marde stuttered out.

Lucy felt her mouth fall open in surprise, Marde had a picture of him and kid Zeref just laying around in his office and no one had noticed before?! Well she had noticed it after snooping through his office and even then she hadn't realized who the other person was in the picture.

"So let me ask again, what exactly is your connection to Zeref?" Natsu asked, ignoring the glare Marde was sending him. "I'm sure he's not just a mentor and boss to you."

Marde sat silent for a few seconds as he seemed to mull over the idea of the telling Natsu the truth. "Both of my parents were prominent people in this city when I was younger. My mother was a well-known lawyer and my father was on city council. They liked to promote themselves as some sort of samaritians half the time, and to them the best way to do that was to adopt a child as a way to promote it. At the time there were a lot of kids that lived on the streets of Magnolia. One day while driving through town my parents' saw a child hiding in an ally and picked him up. They told him they were adopting him and he could now live a good life off the streets. His name was Zeref."

Lucy sucked in air as she thought about what exactly she was hearing, this was the mob boss Zeref's childhood and who knows, they might find out why he turned to a life of crime.

Natsu seemed almost unfazed by this; he was sitting there just nodding along to everything Marde said as if nothing was surprising him. Lucy had to give him credit, by now she would have already shown some kind of shock to everything Marde was saying.

"My parents introduced him as my new brother, though he ended up being a whole three years older then me. The picture you found was taken a year after he had been brought into the family. By the time I was ten I had accepted him as my brother and I liked to believe we were rather close, though it was obvious he didn't think the same about me. He was always telling me how we weren't his real family and how he had a family that needed him. Zeref always said he wouldn't stop until he found them."

"Do you think he ever found them?" Natsu asked, showing interest for the first time since Marde had stared his whole story.

"I wouldn't know" Marde said with a shrug. "My parents passed away suddenly in a car accident when I was fourteen. The two of us ended up being separated. I was sent to live with my mother's aunt and she put him up for adoption. I lived outside of Magnolia for a few years and when I returned I searched for him. By the time I found him he had already stared the Spriggan 12 and was beginning to recruit other gangs. At the time I met up with him he was recruiting in a drug ring that needed a new leader. He told me that he trusted me to run it. At first I wasn't so sure since I was planning on being part of the local government, but once I told him that he was even more insistent on me joining him. I always had a hard time saying no to him."

"I see" Natsu said as he sat back in the chair. "You do realize you practically confessed to being Tartaros's leader."

"I suppose" Marde said with a sigh. "But I also revealed to you that Zeref has family, if he were to find out I told you that I would surely be killed for revealing a weakness of his. So in the end, while I do care deeply for Zeref, I care for my life much more."

"So you're a coward then" Natsu said, it wasn't a question, it was a statement as if he knew that it meant Marde was a coward.

"I suppose, but how would you know?" Marde asked, looking Natsu in the eyes for the first time since he had entered the room. "What is your name? You never did tell me."

"Natsu Dragneel" Natsu said, keeping his eyes leveled with Marde. He seemed to have frozen up, his body ready to move at any second if Marde said something he didn't like.

"Oh" Marde said with a small chuckle. "I see, you would know what a coward is."

Something flashed across Natsu's face, it was too quick for Lucy to figure out what it was but it was enough for her to realize that something Marde had said had hit a nerve in Natsu. The question was what though, what in that one sentence had caused Natsu to lose his cool for one second.

"So do you confess to both crimes we have brought against you?" Natsu asked, shaking off Marde's previous statement.

"Yes, as long as you can promise me that both trial will be without jury, held tomorrow and the press does not hear about it until both trials are over" Marde said, listing off everything he wanted on his fingers.

"If that's what it takes to convict you then I'll agree to all of it. I'll get your requests sent to the court before they close up for the night" Natsu said, his chair scraping against the floor as he pushed it out. "I'm afraid you'll have to be handcuffed."

"Of course, I'll make sure to be on my best behavior" Marde said with a smile plastered across his face.

Natsu nodded towards Erza who pulled out a pair of cuffs.

"Do you need me to read you your rights for the second time today?" Erza asked as she dangled the cuffs on her finger.

"No, I know I have the right to remain silent and such" Marde said. "I do work for the government."

"Of course" Erza said as she cuffed Marde. "Let's go Geer. I hope you have no regrets."

"I suppose I regret letting Tartaros fall" Marde said. "Though I wish you luck in finding that rascal Jackal."

Natsu watched Marde leave the room with cold, calculating eyes as if he was looking for a reason to take him down.

Lucy on the other hand let out a sigh of relief at knowing one of their suspects was being jailed. Now all that was left was Jackal, and who knew how long it would take to find him. He had escaped one time before; surely he could do it again. Now was not the time to worry about him though, Lucy had reports to finish. Jackal could wait until tomorrow.

/

Natsu leaned against his desk as he let out a breath he had been holding this entire time. Marde had been caught but it had seemed almost two easy, there had to be more to it but for now Natsu wouldn't worry about it.

He had slipped the picture back into his pocket before Erza could notice and take it for evidence. When he had realized why the picture had been so familiar he had rushed over to show it to Marde personally. He had half expected him to know something, but if he did he kept it quiet.

All that was left was Jackal and Natsu didn't feel like playing cat and mouse at the moment. He needed to take him down before Jackal realized what had happened to Marde.

Taking out his phone he punched in a number that he hated himself for remembering, though right now he hated himself even more for calling it.

It was picked up after only two rings.

"I have a favor to ask."


	14. Achluphobia (Fear of the Dark)

Natsu was currently a man on a mission. He knew the location of Jackal's hideout and he wasn't planning on letting Jackal slip away.

The minute he knew of Jackal's hideout and temporary home, one of the abandoned buildings by the dock in the same block that Natsu was sure contained Tartaros' base; he had headed straight for a car.

Now as he sped down the road with both the lights and sirens on he realized just how unprepared he was for going after Jackal. He only had a single gun and a pair of cuffs and that was it. No bullet proof vest in case Jackal was armed, which he most likely was, and he had no potential backup if something went wrong. He hadn't exactly thought this through, but nothing was going to stop him now.

He knew where Jackal was and was somewhat prepared to confront, and hopefully, arrest him.

Maybe he should've called Erza or Gray, or even Makarov, but at the movement he was preoccupied with coming up with a plan to take Jackal down quickly before gun fire could be exchanged.

He was so lost in his thoughts he almost didn't hear his phone ringing, until he realized he didn't have the radio on so he shouldn't be hearing some sort of tinkling jingle.

Keeping one hand on the wheel, he dug through his pocket until he found his phone. Pulling it out he looked at caller ID and was surprised to see it was Lucy, he couldn't think why she would be calling him but at least he could tell someone where he was going. Now if he didn't make it back soon enough he could hope that someone would come and get his body.

Okay, scratch that, now was not the time to be pessimistic. He was going to be fine, or at least be able to make it out in one piece. That seemed like a reasonable hope.

Realizing the phone was still ringing Natsu accepted the call before his phone went to voicemail.

/

Lucy wasn't worried and she sure as hell wasn't paranoid even though she had found Natsu's desk empty and when she had asked if he had went home everyone just kind of shrugged. Even the two supposed friends of his didn't know.

So, yes, she might've thought of the worst possible options that could've happened to him but that didn't mean anything. She just wanted to talk to his about his plan to catch Jackal before he could run off and do something stupid and rash.

She had called him just to see where he was and confirm he wasn't off doing something completely stupid. Yes her heart did start to thump in her chest a little when he wasn't picking up on the first few rings like usual, and yes she might have started imagining him in the worse possible situations that would lead to him not picking up. But that didn't mean she was worried since there was no conceivable reason for her to be worried about- and oh thank heavens he picked up.

"Natsu" Lucy said, letting out a sigh of relief before she could stop herself. She hadn't been worried, just concerned.

"Heartfilia" Natsu answered sounding like his normal self which meant he must be fine. "What's the matter? You sound tense."

"Oh it's nothing I was just calling to see-" Lucy began before stopping suddenly when she recognized what the background noise was from Natsu's end. It was police sirens. "Where are you?"

"Uhh, I might be heading towards Jackal's hideout to arrest him." The line went silent.

"You're doing what?!" Lucy screamed into the phone, effectively breaking the silence.

"Okay just hear me out Heartfilia" Natsu said as he tried to find the right words to try and calm Lucy down. "I found out where Jackal is and I decided I should bring him in now before he finds out about Marde. It's a good idea okay."

"I don't think this is a good idea! You didn't even tell anyone about this did you?" Lucy asked, her voice getting higher and higher as she tried to control her anger. "No one knew where you were when I asked them."

"Well I did kinda forget to tell anyone-wait, why were you asking people where I was?" Natsu asked, breaking off his previous statement when the implications of Lucy's words sank in.

"That doesn't matter right now. How did you even manage to figure out where Jackal was anyway?" Lucy asked as she began to pace up and down behind Natsu's desk.

Natsu was quiet for a few minutes after Lucy's question as he seemed to mull over whether or not to tell her. Lucy was left with hearing the sound of police sirens in her ear before he finally answered her.

"I got the information from a friend."

"What kind of friend?" Lucy asked, while she had mainly ignored it during most of the case, she had figured Natsu had some sort of ties to the underbelly of Magnolia.

"It's not important."

"Do you really trust this person to not be leading you to your death?" Lucy asked, fear was beginning to rise in throat. She should really be calling someone, Erza or Gray; perhaps they would know what to do. Maybe she should be trying to figure out where the hell Natsu was heading too.

Natsu was quiet once again at this question but he answered the question quicker than the last.

"I'd trust them with my life."

"Please tell me someone is with you" Lucy said, hoping that at least he had been smart enough to bring someone with him on this little chase of his. He did have a point that about catching Jackal before he found out about Marde's arrest, but at the same time she was worried he would rush in and end up running into trouble.

"No one is with me" Natsu said. "I mean, I didn't even tell anyone I was going after Jackal. Well except for you."

"What the hell do you think you're doing Natsu?! You could get hurt; there could be other Tartaros members there with Jackal. You could be walking into a potential war zone by yourself!" Lucy was beginning to mull over her options, she could call Makarov since he was the only number in the FBI she had that wasn't Natsu and tell him what was going on. Or she could try to get Natsu to tell her where he was heading and catch up with him, which seemed like a bad idea though at the moment she was favoring it the most.

"Well when you put it like that it does sound kind of reckless" Natsu said, starting to sound a little sorry for running off without thinking everything through.

"You think?" Lucy said as she made her decision. She was going to go after him and she'd also call Makarov about what was going on, maybe. Heading towards the elevator she asked her next question. "Where are you heading?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"So at least one person knows where you're going" Lucy said as she stepped into the elevator. Pressing the button for the ground floor, she began to tap her foot as she considered her plan.

"Im-" Natsu said before pausing for a few seconds. The line was silent as Lucy stepped out of the elevator and headed out of the building.

"Come on Natsu" Lucy said as she tried to flag down a taxi. "Just tell me, someone needs to know where you are since you're kind of possibly walking into a lion's den."

"It's more like I'm walking into a gang den but-"

"Natsu, now is not the time, tell me where the hell you're heading!" Lucy commanded as she finally flagged down a taxi.

"Okay, okay" Natsu said. "I'm heading towards 231 Bay Drive."

As Lucy got into the taxi she asked "Is that the road by the docks?"

"Yes."

"Okay, I'm heading towards 231 Bay Drive" Lucy said, covering the phone as she talked to the driver.

"Ya sure about that lady?" the diver asked, not like there was any concern in his voice.

"I'm sure you don't care that much about leaving me off there" Lucy said as she kept her hand over the phone, there was no need for Natsu to know she was going after him.

"Eh, ya got me there" the driver said before speeding away from the curve.

"Heartfilia?" came a muffled voice from Lucy's phone.

Taking her hand away from the phone she put it back up to her ear. "What is it Natsu?"

"What exactly are you doing?" Natsu asked, suspicion was in his voice, he might've heard her talking to the taxi driver.

"What do you mean?" Lucy asked, feigning innocence.

"Listen Heartfilia, don't follow me. If you gotta tell someone then do that, but don't come after me. I don't want you to get caught up in anything" Natsu said and he sounded genuinely concerned. Well fine, he deserved to feel that way after he had done the same to her.

"Okay then, I'm going to tell someone" Lucy said and before Natsu could say anything else she hung up. Taking a deep breath she considered who she should call. It's not like she had much of a choice though, she only knew Makarov's number so it looked like that be who she'd be calling. But maybe not until she was closer to Jackal's hideout, just in case.

/

Throwing his phone into the seat next to him, Natsu muttered under his breath as he turned down Bay Drive. Why did Lucy hang up on him like that? He knew he had heard her talking to someone and it had sounded like she had gotten into a car at some point…

Shit, was she going to follow him to Jackal's hideout? That was not good, not good at all.

"Shit" he groaned as he hit his hand against the steering wheel. He had turned the lights and sirens off a few miles back to not draw attention to himself as he pulled into the abandoned street.

Parking up at the curb in front of 231 Bay Dive he sat in the car for a few seconds to prepare himself. Putting his hand on the gun at his side he took a deep breath and told himself he would be fine.

He knew he hadn't been given the wrong address, they wouldn't have lied to him and it was unlikely they would have alerted Jackal to his arrival so at least he didn't have to worry about an ambush. There was no point just sitting in the car until someone else arrived, and he had a bad feeling that someone might be Lucy.

Opening the car door, he got out of the car before closing it softly behind him. Jackal might have not noticed he was here yet and Natsu wanted to keep it that way. The best way to approach this was to catch Jackal off guard so he didn't have the opportunity to fight back.

Walking up onto the cracked sidewalk, Natsu took a quick look at the building. The two story building seemed weathered and unkempt, a good portion of the windows were either broken or completely missing and the small plot of grass in front of the building was overgrown with weeds. The place certainly looked like no one was living in it, but it didn't seem like criminals could be too picky about where they lived especially if they were supposedly missing and also a bomber.

Standing in front of the door Natsu raised his hand and knocked on the door twice, loud. If Jackal was inside then he should've heard him. He didn't really need to knock on the door; it was an abandoned building so he could've just walked in. But since he knew someone lived here he felt like it was kind of wrong to just barge in.

Natsu counted to ten before he peeked in through one of the cracked windows. He couldn't see any movement inside but it was so dark in the building he couldn't see much of anything.

Turning the door knob he found it was unlocked, so that means he could just waltz on in. Pushing the door open, Natsu cringed when the door caught on the floor and make a loud scratching noise that the entire block had probably heard.

A part of Natsu was screaming at him that this could be a trap. Jackal had to have heard him when he knocked on the door, yet Natsu hadn't heard a single noise from the building. Hell, Natsu was even being loud now as he opened the door. Unless Jackal wasn't here, he must know Natsu was in his own house by now.

Despite the rational side of his brain is telling him maybe he should call and wait for back up, the side of his brain he normally listens to insists he'll be fine and he doesn't have time to wait especially if Jackal knows he's here.

So, naturally, Natsu keeps on walking in until he's standing in the front room of the building. The door is still open behind him but he doesn't feel like he should close it, it would give an easy escape route in case of gunfire. He lets out a sigh of relief when nothing happens after he had stood in the doorway for a good thirty seconds, looks like Jackal hadn't somehow rigged the door to a bomb.

Keeping his hand on his gun, he surveyed the room. There was a staircase up to the second floor to the right of him, a small table with a single chair was shoved into the back of the room beside a door, old take out containers were balanced in one big pile on the table and the rest of the room was varying amounts of bare.

To the left of him was an old sofa that looked like it had been pulled out of a dumpster, there was an antenna TV sitting precariously on a milk crate and a sort of make shift table was in between the sofa and TV. It was a plank of wood on top of more milk crates.

It was only then when Natsu noticed the mess on the make shift table. Taking a step closer to it, he took out his gun. Wrapping his hand firmly around it he kept his grip tight as he looked over what was sitting on the table. It looked like it was a half built bomb, it seems like Jackal had another bombing planned.

Natsu was about to take a closer look at it when he heard the creak, from what must've been the stairs, coming from behind him.

Whipping around Natsu turned around and came to face the person who must be known as Jackal. He looked just like he did in the picture they have of Jeremy Nico, a perfect match except for the longer hair the man had tied up in a ponytail.

"Are you Jeremy Nice, otherwise known as Jackal?" Natsu asked a he began to raise his gun slowly.

"What of it?" Jackal asked as he stepped down another stair, running his hand down the banister as he did so.

"You're under arrest for the bombing of city hall as well as other bombings from four years ago" Natsu said as he kept his eyes on Jackal. His gun was only half way raised and he wasn't pointing it at Jackal, at least not yet.

Jackal remained silent as he took another step down so that he was parallel to Natsu. He continued to stare at Natsu silently as he did this.

Tightening his grip on his gun Natsu was considering saying something else to Jackal when he noticed the slightest bit of movement and the flash of metal.

Natsu didn't even bother to aim as he drew his gun up and leveled it to Jackal as the other man did the same. Pulling the trigger, Natsu heard the gunshot ring in his ear before another one joined his in seconds.

It seemed that maybe he should've forgone that knock; it must've given Jackal the time to bring a gun with him.

Natsu's brain wasn't processing fast enough as time seemed to slow as the two bullets headed towards their target. Natsu could smell the gunpowder as it clogged his nose, all the while he felt the gun vibrate slightly from the shot. His brain was processing all of that, but not processing enough to convince his legs to move so he could dodge the bullet.

Natsu's bullet made contact with Jackal's lower arm, causing the man to drop his gun at the sudden pain that shot through his arm.

Natsu could see the blood soaking through Jackal's sleeve before searing pain shot through his chest.

"Shit" was all that escaped his throat as he felt his legs turn to jelly. Struggling to keep his balance and his grip on his gun, Natsu tried to keep his eyes on Jackal despite his the edges of his vision beginning to blur from the pain that was coming from his abdomen and spreading throughout his chest.

Pressing his hand to his lower abdomen, he felt the stickiness of the blood as it spread through to his shirt and clung to his hand. He could feel it dripping down to his leg as he tried to add more pressure to the wound.

Trying to raise his gun to Jackal again he felt his legs begin to wobble and his vision was blurring even more. His arm was shaking despite his best efforts to keep it straight, he could work through this wound. He had been through worse before and had still been able to continue with what he had needed to do.

Gritting his teeth, he kept his arm as straight as possible and was about to press down on the trigger again when a shot of blinding pain shot through his entire body. Natsu's head was beginning to spin and his vision was starting to fill with black spots. Looking down at his wound he saw that a decent puddle of blood was on the floor and that the spot on his shirt was the roughly the size of a small plate.

He felt his legs shake one last time in warning before giving out on him. First he fell down to his knees before he slumped down to the floor as the black spots began to fill his vision.

The cool concrete floor met his cheek as he heard his own ragged breathing in his ear; the bullet had to have hit an organ. No, he knew it hit something. It was practically impossible to shoot at someone's abdomen and not hit something.

He could hear sounds of something scrapping on wood; it must be Jackal picking up his gun. Looks like Natsu was about to be finished off or Jackal was going to flee and Natsu would never find him again.

Natsu was definitely going to be a goner if no one showed up, and if he died it would be his own damn fault for being too much in a hurry to actually get on some gear. It was fitting to him that his last thoughts would be him chastising himself for being too damn stupid.

Just as he was losing his conscious he swore he heard footsteps approaching him.

/

Lucy had called Makarov right as the cab had turned down Bay Drive. He had told her someone would be over in a matter of minutes.

As she had rushed to pay the driver and get out of the cab she heard two gunshots. As she jumped out of the cab and had rushed to the open the cab driver sent her one last look, probably a confused one since she was running towards gunshots, and sped off.

Bursting in through the open door the first thing she noticed was Natsu laying face down on the floor in a puddle of blood, most likely his own. She didn't bother to see if anyone else was in the room as she rushed over to him, rolling him over so she could find the injury.

A gunshot wound was on his upper right abdomen and it had definitely hit an organ with a lot of blood flow based on the amount coming out of the wound. He had to have lost at least two pints, right now he was in shock and he couldn't risk losing too much more.

Pressing her hands over his wound as she tried to slow the blood flow she heard the creaking of something, most likely the wooden stairs she had only barely noticed when she had ran inside, and realized that she didn't know where Jackal was.

Taking one of her blooded hands off of Natsu's wound; she peeled the gun out of Natsu's grip and turned towards the source of the noise. Her grip on the gun was loose, and she was shaking slightly from the adrenaline of the moment.

She was facing a man standing on the stairs with a gun being held loosely by an arm that was bleeding; she was looking at the man who must be Jackal.

Keeping the gun aimed at the man she waited to see if he would move, she tried to open her mouth to say something to him but nothing would come out.

Pressing down harder on Natsu's wound she hoped that whoever Makarov had called was almost here.

The next few seconds happened quickly, but felt like it had actually taken centuries. Lucy watched as if in slow motion as Jackal moved the gun in his hand up to point at Lucy, despite his shaking arm.

Lucy reacted instinctively before she could even thinking about it. Her grip tightened around the gun and her finger pressed down on the trigger. A loud bang filled her ears as the bullet headed towards Jackal.

Then, in slow motion, Jackal was falling back against the wall as a shocked expression crossed his face. He slid down the wall seconds later leaving behind a trail of blood.

Lucy could still hear the bang in her ear but at the moment she had more things to worry about. Slipping off her jacket she pressed it down over Natsu's wound as added more pressure with her hands.

She could feel the stings of tears in her eyes as she listened to Natsu's labored breath. Pressing down harder, she could feel them falling down her face as the sound of sirens filled her ears.

* * *

A/N: Next weeks chapter will be last. I want to thank everyone who has read this so far and for all the comments, they really keep me going. If you're wondering how I can tie everything up in one chapter, it will all be explained next week.


	15. Metathesiophobia (Fear of Change)

Natsu felt as though he was floating, he was weightless. His eyes were sealed shut and wouldn't open, not that Natsu had been trying too hard to open them. He felt content, almost peaceful, as his subconscious remained asleep but eventually floating around got boring.

It took him awhile to will himself awake, his body felt heavy and he felt disconnected from it. Eventually he was able to peel his eyes open, just barely.

All he could see was bright light that flooded his vision and blinded him for a few seconds. He almost thought that he had died and was entering the afterlife when he heard the sound of beeping.

As he regained his sight he took in his surroundings, he was in a hospital which made sense since he had been shot. The first thing he noticed was an uncomfortable dull pain that was coming from his abdomen and the second was that the beeping was coming from the heart monitor that was hooked up to him. The IV needle they had stuck in the crook of his arm was itchy and as Natsu was about to mess with it when he noticed he wasn't the only person in the room.

Sitting in a chair that was pulled up next to his bed was Lucy. She was fast asleep with her head resting on the side of his bed and was using her arms as a sort of pillow.

Something inside of his itched to reach out and brush off the hair that had fallen in front of her face, but his common sense was much stronger for once.

He watched as with each breath Lucy's back rose and fell before ripping his eyes away and looked at anything else cause god he felt like such a creep watching her sleep. He kept his eyes firmly on the bare white wall in front of him as a million questions went through his head, the main one he wanted an answer to was what had happened to Jackal.

He wished he wasn't stuck in this hospital bed, he needed to move around when he got like this with all the questions scratching at his brain; it helped him think.

Drumming his fingers against the bedsheets he tried to collect his thoughts and calm down. He snuck a look over at Lucy and instantly felt the rushing feeling of calmness just wash over him, and it scared him that just one look at Lucy was able to calm his nerves. He had grown too attached to her during this case, and now that the case was either closed or he had been taken off of it, he would probably never see her again.

For some reason that thought pained him, he felt his heart clench as he tried to reason with himself that this would be good. Now that they weren't on the same case together this quick friendship that had formed could be cut off easily. He didn't want to just forget about her and just throw her away like he had done to so many people. She was….different somehow.

She made him want to be better; she made him want to finally sever all those links he had to his past. But even if he wanted to do that he couldn't, he could never cut off that part of him.

All kinds of whispering thoughts filled his head, he wasn't like her, he didn't belong anywhere near her and all her bright and shining glory that had blinded as he had gotten to know her. Despite all the walls and precautions he had built up, she seemed to break through everyone, she was breaking all the rules he had made for himself.

God, he was beginning to fall in love with her.

Letting his head fall back to the pillow he let out one word at this realization. "Shit."

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit" Natsu mumbled as he pressed his hands against his eyes. He couldn't do this, this couldn't be happening. He was going to fuck this up now. He wasn't in love with Lucy, not fully, not yet. He was stuck in the gray area of like and love. Not quite in love but he didn't just like her.

He was going to screw this up. Everything Zeref had told him just days before came bubbling back into his mind. He and Lucy were too different; he was too messed up to be loved. Hell, he had been part of a gang for a good portion of his life, and even now he was still technically a part of said gang. He still had… shit, what if someone had seen the mark.

His hand instantly went to his right shoulder, clutching at the thin material of the hospital gown his hand began to shake. He was screwed if they had seen his tattoo, though he supposed if they had seen it he would have been handcuffed to the bed by now.

Letting his hand drop down into his lap he let out a long sigh. One of his worries was crossed off and the biggest one was currently asleep right next to him.

He supposed he should've questioned by now why Lucy was even asleep by his bedside, but he was occupied with other things that took a little priority over why Lucy was at his side. Sure he wanted to know, but he also didn't want any extra reasons to become attached to her even more.

No, now was not the time to be thinking about how he had fallen for someone completely unobtainable, pushing all of those thoughts out of his mind Natsu went back to worrying about what had happened to Jackal.

He was beginning to go through all the possible scenarios when he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. Turning his head he found Lucy had woken up.

Their eyes met and Lucy blinked twice before her eyes went wide.

"NATSU DRAGNEEL DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'VE PUT EVERYONE THROUGH BECAUSE OF YOUR STUPIDITY?!" Lucy bellowed as her face went red. So she was definitely angry at him, though she had a good reason to be.

"Um-" Natsu said timidly before Lucy cut him off.

"You just _had_ to go after Jackal without telling anyone, and now look at you! You're in the hospital and for a few seconds we weren't sure if you were going to make it!" Lucy yelled as her hands gripped tight around the blanket. Her eyes were rimmed with red, god had she been crying?

"I know sorry doesn't exactly cover everything, but I'm really sorry" Natsu said as he watched for her reaction.

"You're sorry?!" Lucy said as he hand reached out and wrapped around the color of Natsu's hospital gown. "When I got to Jackal's hideout I found you in a puddle of your own blood! Damn it Natsu, I thought you could've died! Do you know how worried I was? I wasn't able to sit down until you came out of surgery!"

"I was in surgery?" Natsu asked, even though he regretted it two seconds later when he saw Lucy's face.

"Of course you were you idiot! You got shot!" Lucy said as her grip around the gown's collar tightened. "Everybody has been so worried; you've been out for two days!"

"Oh" Natsu said, at a lost for how to comfort Lucy.

"God, do you even realize that your actions have consequences?! Do you realize how dangerous your plan was? What would've happened if I hadn't called you? What if you hadn't told me where you were going?!" Tears were beginning to well up in Lucy's eyes as her hand slipped away from the gown's collar.

"God Heartfilia, I really am sorry. I didn't mean to worry you, or anyone I just-" Natsu said pausing for a second as he tried to find the words, "I didn't think it all through. I'm so sorry."

"You idot" Lucy said, her voice shaking slightly. "Do you realize how worried I was?" Then arms were wrapping themselves around his neck and Natsu was pulled into some sort of hug with Lucy.

He felt his heart speed up but he willed it to calm down since there's no reason to make a big deal out of a hug. Natsu's arms had just been figuring out what they should be doing when a nurse walked in.

"I heard yelling so I figured you must've woken up" the nurse said with fake cheeriness as she walked over towards Natsu.

Lucy broke away from the half hug and sat back down in her chair. "Are you here to check on him?"

"Well that is my job, now that he's awake I have to check to see how well his responses are" the nurse said as she looked over at Natsu's vitals before writing something down on her clipboard.

Once the nurse had finished her exam and left, Natsu turned his attention back to Lucy.

"So what happened to me exactly? You know, besides the fact that I got shot."

"Well-" Lucy said as she sat back in her chair, "The bullet hit one of your kidneys, so they had to take you into surgery to remove it and fix up any other damage the bullet left. Before you ask, you'll be fine without that kidney, you still have one left."

"Ah, okay, cool" Natsu said with a small nod. "At least I don't have to worry that I lost a vital organ or something."

"You would be hooked up to a lot more machines if it had been an organ without a backup" Lucy said as she crossed her legs. "I'm sure you have more to ask then what happened to you."

"Yeah" Natsu said with a small smile, was he that easy to read? "I need to know what happened to Jackal."

"Jackal is-" Lucy paused midsentence as she tried to find the best way to tell Natsu what had happened. "Jackal is dead." Lucy let out a small sigh after telling Natsu the one sentence she had been dreading to say, this went unbeknownst to Natsu who was currently looking at her with wide eyes.

"Wha-what happened?" Natsu asked, his voice barely above a whisper. He had a rough idea what must've happened. Jackal must've been shot by whoever showed up to the scene after he had passed out, which was another thing he wanted to know, who showed up second at the scene.

"Uh, well, the second person who showed up at Jackal's place ended up shooting Jackal after he aimed a gun at them as he was trying to escape. They ended up shooting Jackal in the heart" Lucy said, she avoided his eyes as she said all of this. She was trying to act passive about it but her face showed another story, she looked like she was reliving something that had scared her.

"Who was the second person?" Natsu asked, it seemed to be a bit of a grab asking Lucy who had showed up second since she only knew only three other people in the FBI, but something made him think she might now more than she's letting on.

Lucy glanced at him from the corner of her eye before looking back down into her lap, she stayed quiet.

"It's fine if you don't know who it was, it's not like I need to know who shot-"

"I know the person who shot Jackal" Lucy said, cutting him off. She was looking at him now.

"Oh, uh, really?" That's, well, I don't know what word I should use but could you tell me who it was?" Natsu asked. "Was it Fullbuster or-"

"It was me."

Those three words hung in the air as Natsu let the implications of the words sink in. Lucy had been the second person at the scene which meant that she had…

"You shot Jackal?" Natsu asked with hesitation in his voice as he did so. He knew the answer to his question and as he watched Lucy's face twist he regretted even asking it. There was no way she wasn't a little shaken up about killing someone; she was probably trying her best to forget it. Before he could open his mouth again and tell her that she didn't need to answer the question she spoke.

"Yes."

She was so quiet he almost didn't hear her, but he did and he honestly wished he had just kept quiet.

"Are you alright?" He had been hesitant to ask since he was horrible at comforting people but it was obvious that Lucy had not come to terms with what had happened.

"Am I-Yes I'm fine" Lucy said. Natsu was about to push a little harder for an honest answer when Lucy continued talking. "I mean, I'm not being charged with murder or anything. Technically it was in self-defense since he was aiming a gun at me but-"

"Woah, woah, calm down" Natsu said, his hands reaching out to her shoulders. Even if the movement sent a bolt of pain through his side he kept his hands on her shoulders. "I didn't ask about that, I asked how you're feeling right now. I know this must be weighing on your mind."

"I-I don't want to talk about it" Lucy said, she was back at looking at her hands. Well he supposed he had his answer though, Lucy was most definitely not okay but he knew better than to push while the memory was still fresh. He would wait to bring it up once the memory wasn't so prominent in her mind.

"Is there any news on Marde?" Natsu asked, desperate to change the topic and clear the suffocating air that had filled the room.

"He had his two trials. The verdict for both were guilty so it looks like he's going to be in jail for a long time" Lucy said as fiddled with her thumbs, she was also desperate to move the topic off Jackal.

"So I guess we'll be closing up the case soon" Natsu said, scared of silence entering the room.

"Yeah I guess, all you have to do is figure out where Tartaros' hideout is" Lucy said as her eyes left her lap. "I guess I'll be back to mummies soon."

"Yeah" Natsu said with a small chuckle before silence fell between them. Natsu wanted to find something to talk about to fill the silence, but he didn't want to bring up anything that would remind Lucy of Jackal.

"The flowers you got look nice" Lucy said with a small smile, effectively breaking the silence. She was pointing at something behind Natsu's head and when he turned around he faced a large basket of flowers.

They did look rather nice. "Oh, I didn't even notice them."

"Yeah I almost didn't either. They were dropped off yesterday while I wasn't in your room. The nurse hadn't even realized that someone had even been by" Lucy said with shrug.

"Huh, that's kinda weird" Natsu said as he noticed a note nestled around the brim of the basket. Plucking it out he read the card and felt his stomach drop. He knew he should've expected something like this, but he hadn't exactly expected it to be so flashy.

 _"_ _You owe me something now dear baby brother. I do hope you get well soon!"_

Natsu's mouth went dry as he read those two sentences for a fourth time. This was not good, Zeref was going to pull something and Natsu knew it. What did he expect though; he had used Zeref to get intel on where Jackal was. Now Zeref wanted something in return, and he always asked for the same things every time.

Folding the note up, Natsu threw it into the flowers. He didn't want to think about that right now.

"Hey" Lucy said, drawing Natsu's attention back to her. She was looking at with badly hidden worry. "Are you okay? You, um, you seemed a bit off after you read the note with the flowers. Who were the flowers from?"

Natsu stared at Lucy blankly for a few seconds as he tried to think of something to tell her. He could just tell her he was fine and that the flowers hadn't come with a name, which was actually true. He was just opening his mouth to answer her when someone came running into the room.

"Shit, I gotta hide" muttered the intruder, who just so happened to be Gray.

"Hello Gray" Lucy said, Gray's presence distracting her from Natsu's weird reaction to the card. "Are you okay?"

"No, I'm not okay" Gray said as he poked his head nervously out the door before pulling it back in. "I need a place to hide." Turning towards the two, he paused for a few seconds when he noticed Natsu was up.

"What are you hiding from?" Natsu asked.

"None of your business" Gray spit at him before softening slightly. "Good to see that you're finally awake you reckless idiot, do you know what-"

"Don't you have to be hiding?" Natsu asked, he had already got that whole spiel from Lucy and he didn't exactly want to hear it again from Gray.

"Shit you're right" Gray said before ducking down beside the hospital bed. A few seconds later a blue haired nurse stuck her head into the room.

"Have either of you seen handsome black haired man walk by?" she asked as she looked over their room.

"Um, nope" Lucy said with a shrug. "Haven't seen anyone fitting that description."

"Me neither" Natsu said with an apologetic smile. "I saw an average looking black haired guy walk by the room a few seconds ago though."

"No, that wouldn't have been him" the women said with a sigh. "I wanted to talk to him before I had to suit up for surgery."

"Well maybe he'll still be here after the surgery" Lucy offered, she honestly couldn't believe that this woman was what Gray was hiding from. She seemed nice.

"I suppose I could hope that" the woman said. "Well, thanks for helping me out."

After the nurse had left the two turned their attention to the man who was currently poking his head up over the side of the bed.

"Is the coast clear?" Gray asked as he looked over at the door.

"Yeah she left, but I gotta ask why the hell you're hiding from her?" Natsu asked as he rolled his eyes at Gray.

"Well you see-" Gray began before shaking his head and starting over. "Do you remember how about a month ago I helped out a hostage situation at this hospital?"

"Yes?" Natsu said with a shrug. "I remember that you didn't shut up about it for a week."

"Well that nurse was the hostage. I think she might have a hero complex or something but after I got the guy to let her go I could feel her eyes staring at me until I got the guy to the police. Since then she's asked me out four times. Four times Dragneel!" Gray said as he waved his hands around.

"Listen Fullbuster" Natsu said as he shook his head. "I know you have some weird commitment issues that entail for you to never go on more than four dates with someone, but it's not going to kill you to go on one date with the nurse. I bet you she'll never ask again after she learns about your terrible personality."

"Shut up" Gray spit before disappearing back down behind the bed.

"The first step to fixing your problems is accepting you have a problem" Natsu said, sticking his head over the side of the bed.

"Fuck off Dragneel!"

"Sorry I can't go anywhere, I'm kind of stuck here."

"I swear if Dr. Heartfilia wasn't here I would've killed you by now."

"Boys, boys, you're both pretty! But can we get back to the topic of that nice nurse you're ignoring for no reason."

"You know what, fuck both of you."

 **One Week Later**

"Are you ready to go?" Lucy asked as she walked into Natsu's hospital room.

"God yes" Natsu said as he slipped on a black suit jacket. Whoever had brought him in a suit was unknown to her but he had managed to convince one of his friends to bring one in for his apparently.

"Aren't you supposed to take it easy for the next week?" Lucy asked as she leaned against the doorframe.

"I've been stuck in this place for over a week" Natsu said as he draped a tie on his shoulder. "I'm going back to work, I just have to promise to not do anything too exerting."

"And are you really going to follow through with that promise?" Lucy asked with a raised brow.

"Sure I will" Natsu said as he tied his tie. "I mean, I'm going to have you breathing down my neck."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lucy asked as she crossed her arms.

"Nothing, I'm happy were still going to be working together since our first case went so well" Natsu said as he straightened up his tie before turning towards her.

"Makarov is just happy that he has a babysitter for you now" Lucy said as she shook her head before meeting Natsu's eyes.

"Oh I'm sure our partnership was extended for a better reason then that" Natsu said as he walked over until he was standing in front of Lucy. "I mean, we did manage to help take down Tartaros. The raid was yesterday by the way, apparently it went rather well."

"I heard since I was the one who told you about the raid in the first place" Lucy said. "Well Makarov has a case for us if you're up for it."

"Of course I am" Natsu said, a wide smile crossing his face. Lucy felt her heart skip slightly when she saw that smile, it was different from what she was used to, and for once it was full of real warmth.

"Okay" Lucy said as she did her best to ignore her hearts accelerated beating. "Let's get going. I have the file in the car; you can read it while I drive us to meet the witness."

"Let's get going then partner" Natsu said as he gestured at the door with his head.

Patting him on the shoulder she replied back "After you partner."

The two of them left the room and walked out of the hospital. A slightly wilted flower arrangement was left behind on the table with a crumpled note that was hidden by the leaves.

* * *

A/N: I have a few things I want to say before wrapping this up all up, but first I want to thank everyone again for all the comments. First, I never had planned for this to be a Nalu fic, but the last chapter got away from me. I'm afraid the sequel was canceled, I'm sorry to everyone who was excited or waiting for it.


End file.
